Meisel to Speak and Receive Honorary Degree at Founders Day

One of the nation’s outstanding community service leaders will receive West Virginia Wesleyan College’s honorary Doctor of Divinity degree at Founders Day ceremonies on Friday, October 10 at 11 a.m. in Wesley Chapel. Wayne Williams Meisel, the president of the Corella & Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, a national philanthropic organization based in Princeton, New Jersey, will also serve as the keynote speaker at the annual event.

The Bonner Foundation has provided over $200 million in service-based scholarships to more than 2,500 students annually and over $9.5 million in grants to faith-based communities in their fight against hunger. The National Society for Fundraising Executives selected the Bonner Foundation as its Foundation of the Year.
In 1992, the Bonner Scholarship program was established on Wesleyan’s campus. Since that time, over 200 students have provided more than 56,000 hours of community service in Upshur and surrounding counties.

After graduating cum laude from Harvard University, Meisel worked at Harvard, where he created H.A.N.D. (House and Neighborhood Development), a campus-wide service initiative linking the residential colleges at Harvard with the neighborhoods of Cambridge. Later, he founded Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), a platform for students and graduates to lead, sustain, and challenge their peers to serve others and initiate positive change. Currently, COOL works with 700 colleges and universities nationwide and with numerous international student groups.

Working with COOL, Meisel produced a paradigm for youth-led organizations. His efforts brought about coalitions between and among individuals, campuses, local communities, and all levels of government that today are actively engaged in program conduct and policy implementation. As Director, he conceived and developed National Youth Service Day, an annual event designed to recognize and support young people in their efforts to support their communities. COOL was awarded the President’s Volunteer Action Award by President Ronald Reagan as the leading service organization in the country mobilizing volunteers.

Meisel was appointed by President George H. Bush to serve on the Commission for National and Community Service (later renamed the Corporation for National Service). During his tenure, he proposed both the original concept and name of AmeriCorps.

Meisel received the Jefferson Award by the American Institute for Public Service. Founded in 1972 to act as a “Nobel Prize for public service in the United States,” the Jefferson Award is given annually to the individual thirty-five years or younger performing the “Greatest Public Service.” In 1994, Time magazine recognized Meisel as one of the top fifty leaders in the world under the age of 40. He has also received the highest honors bestowed to individuals by such organizations as The United Way of America, The Lyndhurst Foundation, and Common Cause.

In 1998, he received his master’s of divinity degree from the Princeton Theological Seminary. An ordained minister in the United Presbyterian Church, Meisel was also a founding board member of the President’s Commission on National and Community Service and Teach for America.

Meisel has authored several books—Building A Movement: Students in Community Service and On Your Mark, Get Set, Go: From Student Ideas to Campus Action, and Civic Engagement at the Center. Additionally, he has co-edited several books including—Common Good: Common Ground; Light One Candle, and From Community Service to Political Action.