Kristopher Seiber
Maryville College
Kris Seiber, a second year student at Maryville College, is a compassionate and creative leader in the classroom and in the community. As a Bonner Scholar, Kris serves ten hours a week as a tutor and mentor to young people in our community, promoting a healthy learning and recreational environment and interacting with students and parents to encourage success. As an encourager to his peers, Kris embraces differences with a ready smile and with deep curiosity and respect for others. He constantly seeks ways to strengthen our ties to one another and to lift up those whose voices may not be heard.
Personal Statement
Growing up in a small southern town, I saw a large socioeconomic gap between where I lived, Maryville, and the even smaller town next door, Alcoa. During high school, I branched out into the community working local food drives. Through doing this, I feel in love with serving my community! When college came around, I became a Bonner Scholar. This allowed me to serve directly to the population where the socioeconomic gap begins: children. I serve regularly are the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Alcoa tutoring and mentoring under-privileged children. As I have served there for almost two years, I have begun to realize that educating children and equipping them with life strategies, not just academic strategies, has the power to close the gap. Thus, I have worked with the MLK Center's director, to implement, in both the after-school program as well as the summer camp program, a series of talks and activities to equip students on how to handle the ups and downs of life after school. My passion is to give under-privileged children the necessary tools and guidance they need so that they have the power to do and become whatever they desire.
