News Releases

College Named to National Service Honor Roll

The Corporation for National and Community Service has named Alma College to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth. 

“Alma College is delighted to be honored with this prestigious designation,” said Anne Ritz, the College’s service-learning coordinator. “Alma students truly serve generously through academic service learning, co-curricular volunteerism and community engagement.

“From participating in alternative break service trips, to serving at the local Community Cafe, to mentoring in area schools through the Mentor PLUS program, to partnering with the Pine River Superfund Site Citizen Task Force, Alma students are engaged as community partners through meaningful service with the intent of promoting commitment to the civic community,” she said.

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovativeness of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

“College students like those at Alma College are tackling the toughest problems in America, demonstrating their compassion, commitment and creativity in by serving as mentors, tutors, health workers and even engineers,” said David Eisner, chief executive officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service. “They represent a renewed spirit of civic engagement fostered by outstanding leadership on caring campuses.”
 
The Honor Roll is jointly sponsored by the Corporation, through its Learn and Serve America program, and the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USA Freedom Corps, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.

In congratulating the winners, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said, “Americans rely on our higher education system to prepare students for citizenship and the workforce. We look to institutions like these to provide leadership in partnering with local schools to shape the civic, democratic and economic future of our country.”

Overall, the Community Service Honor Roll awarded six schools with Presidential Awards. In addition, four schools were recognized as Special Achievement Award winners, 127 as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 391 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 528 schools were recognized.

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Thirty-four percent of Alma students participate in intercollegiate athletics. Alma College competes at the NCAA Division III level as a member of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the oldest existing athletic conference in the nation. Alma offers 22 varsity sports—11 for the women and 11 for the men—including four sports that debuted in 2011–12: women’s lacrosse and bowling and men’s lacrosse and wrestling.

 

Student Profile

Alexandra Woodburne

Alexandra Woodburne
Graduation: 2015
Major: Elementary Education

Always up for a challenge, Grand Rapids sophomore Alexandra Woodburne began dancing ballet in high school and quickly fell in love with the precision it required.

“I really like the cleanness of the ballet style,” she says. “Everything needs to be placed just so, especially on pointe. If the angle of your head is off, everything else will be off as well. Because of that challenge, I find it so rewarding. It’s easy to see yourself improving.”