Community Service Efforts Earn National Award
For the second straight year, the Corporation for National and
Community Service has honored Alma College with a place on the
President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary
community service efforts.
“Alma College students continue to serve generously through academic
service learning, co-curricular volunteerism and community engagement,”
says Anne Ritz, the College’s service-learning coordinator. “We’re
delighted to once again receive this designation.”
Service opportunities abound for Alma students, from participating in
alternative break service trips, to serving at the local Community
Cafe, to mentoring in area schools, to partnering with the Pine River
Superfund Site Citizen Task Force.
Students volunteering last fall.
“Alma students are engaged as community partners through meaningful service with the intent of promoting commitment to the civic community,” says Ritz.
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.
“In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever,”
says Stephen Goldsmith, vice chairman of the Board of Directors of the
Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the
Honor Roll. “College students represent an enormous pool of
idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges. We
salute Alma College for making community service a campus priority, and
thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America
through service to others.”
The Honor Roll is sponsored by the Corporation in collaboration with
the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and the President's Council on Service and Civic
Participation. The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor
Roll is presented during the annual conference of the American Council
on Education.
“I offer heartfelt congratulations to those institutions named to the
2008 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll,” said
American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad. “College
and university students across the country are making a difference in
the lives of others every day — as are the institutions that encourage
their students to serve others.”
Recent studies have underlined the importance of service learning and
volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 million college students
gave more than 297 million hours of volunteer service, according to the
Corporation’s Volunteering in America 2007 study.
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency
that strives to “improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster
civic engagement through service and volunteering.” The Corporation
administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, a
program that supports service learning in schools, institutions of
higher education and community-based organizations. For more
information, go to http://www.nationalservice.gov.
Overall, the Corporation honored six schools with Presidential Awards.
In addition, 83 were named as Honor Roll With Distinction members and
546 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 635 schools were
recognized. A full list is available at http://www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
-mjs-
Posted: Mon, February 9th, 2009 at 9:54AM
