Washington, D.C. - Mentoring can make all the difference in an at-risk child’s life, according to Veronika Gilliland, a senior at California State University, Northridge, who told her story to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community at their winter meeting today.

After Board Chair Stephen Goldsmith thanked the panel for advancing the agency’s strategic goal of engaging more college students in service, Gilliland said that she would not have attended college had it not been for the influence of her first mentor, who was a college student herself. “As a teenager I didn’t see myself in college. My first mentor opened my eyes and encouraged me.” Gilliland found her first year of college difficult, but her attitude changed and her career plans solidified when she became a mentor herself. Gilliland now has her eyes on grad school and a career that includes working with young people living in difficult situations.

Richard Rush, president of California State University, Channel Islands, discussed the university’s commitment to service and service-learning. Rush also serves as chairman of California Campus Compact, which is part of a national organization of college and university presidents dedicated to advancing the public purpose of colleges and universities by educating their students for responsible citizenship. He underlined the importance of service-learning to the more than 1,000 member colleges of Campus Compact, noting that 98 percent of the members offer service-learning in the curricula and that 1.9 million students performed service on member campuses in 2006. Rush added that Learn and Serve America grants “leverage enormous results” on college campuses.

Wayne Meisel, president of the Bonner Foundation, echoed Rush’s statement, calling Learn and Serve America grants “the leaven in the bread” for service-learning programs. Meisel cautioned, though, that service-learning “too many times is episodic.” After taking a service-learning course one semester, students may move on to other courses that lack a service-learning component. “We’ve tried to create an academic journey,” through the Bonner Scholars program, he said, which requires participants to be involved in service-learning throughout their college years.

In thanking the panel, Goldsmith announced the launch of a new web portal geared at colleges and universities. The web page on http://www.nationalservice.gov provides links and information to help higher education institutions further their civic mission including training resources, research, student recognition opportunities, and grant information. The page also lists the 69 colleges and universities that match the Eli Segal AmeriCorps Education Award that AmeriCorps members receive after completing a term of service.

In his introductory remarks, Goldsmith noted that one year has passed since the Corporation released its five-year strategic plan, and praised staff and partners for their progress in implementing the plan. In the last year, the Corporation has integrated strategic goals into program guidelines and expanded the number of community volunteers Corporation programs have leveraged; formed a working group of federal agencies and nonprofit organizations to close the mentoring gap; launched a campaign to engage baby boomers in service; kicked off the 10 by 10 campaign to increase the number of volunteers nationally by 10 million people by 2010; and inaugurated the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll to recognize the outstanding job colleges are doing to engage students in service.

In other business, the board passed a resolution approving annual grantmaking and program plans for Learn and Serve America, Senior Corps, AmeriCorps*NCCC, and AmeriCorps*VISTA for fiscal year 2008, and directed CEO David Eisner to report implementation milestones to the board on an ongoing basis. The board also honored outgoing member William Schambra, whose term recently ended. During his tenure on the board, Schambra led the development of the Corporation’s Strategic Plan for 2006 through 2010, helped to lead the taskforce that created comprehensive reforms and enhancements to the Corporation’s grant-making process, and worked to effectively broaden and deepen the participation of small community and faith-based organizations in national service.

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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