141 Schools Honored for Distinguished Community Service, Katrina Relief

Chicago, Ill. – Six colleges and universities received top recognition for extraordinary community service – three for aiding hurricane victims along the Gulf Coast and three for helping close neighbors – as the first-ever President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll was announced in Chicago today.

The President’s Award for Hurricane Relief went to Jackson State University, Louisiana State University and Tulane University. Elon University of North Carolina; California State University, Monterey Bay; and Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis received the President’s Award for outstanding community service.

“Higher education is a powerful engine of civic engagement and is central to achieving the President's vision of active citizens and connected communities,” said Stephen Goldsmith, Chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent federal agency tasked with fostering an ethic of volunteerism and service in America. “We applaud America’s college students and the universities they attend for stepping up to help people in need.”

Goldsmith presented the awards at the Campus Compact 20th Anniversary. In addition to the top honorees, nine schools received Katrina Compassion Awards for helping Gulf Coast communities recover, 10 others were named finalists for general community service, and 141 colleges, universities and professional schools were recognized for distinguished community service. In total, 492 schools were recognized on the first President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. A full list is available at http://www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

“America’s colleges and universities have a historic commitment to civic engagement and are uniquely positioned to guide young adults on a path to meaningful, lifelong service,” said Jean Case, President of the Foundation who also serves as Chair of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.

The Honor Roll is co-sponsored by the Corporation, the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USA Freedom Corps, and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll has been generously supported by the Case Foundation. The recognition is presented in cooperation with Campus Compact, a national coalition of nearly 1,000 college and university presidents, and supported by all the major national higher education associations.

More than 500 colleges applied for the Honor Roll in its inaugural year, and monetary awards of $5,000 were presented to the six top schools to support further service on their campuses. The Corporation made the final selections.

“The extraordinary response to the President’s Honor Roll is another sign that universities are embracing their civic mission in new and creative ways,” said Corporation CEO David Eisner. “More and more we see colleges working to improve their communities and encouraging an ethic of service by their students. These efforts are fueling a growing movement of college student service that will benefit our nation for many years to come.”

The awards were presented a day after the Corporation for National and Community Service released a comprehensive report, “College Students Helping America,” which shows college student civic engagement rising significantly in recent years. The study, which used data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed that student volunteering increased approximately 20 percent from 2002 to 2005, and that 3.3 million college students serve their communities and nation. The study showed that college students between ages 16 to 24 are more likely to volunteer than cohorts in that age group who are not enrolled. (Click here to view the report.)

Observers have attributed the growth in student service to several causes: the proliferation of high-school and college service-learning classes; an increase in the number of campus offices linking students to volunteer opportunities, and the lingering impact of the September 11 and Hurricane Katrina disasters.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is working with other federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organizations to encourage even greater levels of service and civic engagement by college students. Their goal is to increase the number of college student participating in volunteer service to 5 million college students annually by 2010.

The President’s Honor Roll provides more new evidence that the nation is beginning to move toward that level of student civic engagement. More than 1.1 million students from Honor Roll schools participated in local community service activities, and more than 219,000 students provided hurricane relief.

Community service programs and activities conducted by Honor Roll schools included mentorship programs for foster children, literacy tutoring for preschool children in underserved communities, medical and other professional services, homebuilding through Habitat for Humanity, and neighborhood cleanup programs. Universities reported that college students provided nearly 2.3 million service hours volunteering in Hurricane Katrina relief. As one example, tens of thousands of college students substituted work for fun during their winter and spring breaks by traveling to the Gulf to gut homes, clear debris, repair roofs, and paint buildings.

Each year, the Corporation makes a significant investment in building a culture of service on college campuses through Learn and Serve America and AmeriCorps programs at institutions of higher education. In addition to direct grants to support service-learning and engagement of students in their communities, the Corporation has also supported higher education through the more than $1.2 billion in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards to AmeriCorps members who complete their service and use their awards to pay for college tuition or to pay back student loans.

The Corporation for National and Community Service improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. Each year, the Corporation provides opportunities for more than 2 million Americans of all ages and backgrounds to serve their communities and country through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America. For more information, go to http://www.nationalservice.gov.

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