528 Colleges Make Honor Roll; Service Ethic Strong on Campus

San Diego, Calif. – Six colleges and universities today received presidential recognition for extraordinary contributions to service in their communities in the second annual 2007 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Liz Seale, Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service, announced the awards at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education.

Three of the schools -- Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Pennsylvania -- received Presidential Awards for General Community Service. Chaminade University of Honolulu, Syracuse University, and the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif., were recognized for Service to Youth from Disadvantaged Circumstances, a special focus area of this year’s Honor Roll competition.

“College students are tackling the toughest problems in America, demonstrating their compassion, commitment, and creativity in by serving as mentors, tutors, health workers, and even engineers,” Seale said. “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, Campus Compact, 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.”

In all, 528 schools were listed on the Honor Roll for their community service activities during the 2006-2007 academic year. This year, new Special Achievement Awards for outstanding service by minority serving institutions and community colleges were presented to Lake Area Technical Institute, Watertown, S.D; Raritan Valley Community College, Somerville, N.J.; Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, N.C.; and California State University, Fresno. In addition, the Honor Roll also recognized 127 schools as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 391 schools as Honor Roll members. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

Launched in 2006, the President’s Honor Roll recognizes institutions of higher education that support innovative, effective, and exemplary community service programs. Honorees for the various award levels, including the Presidential Award, were selected based on a series of factors, including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers service-learning courses. Applications are currently being accepted for the 2008 Honor Roll which covers the 2007-2008 academic year. The application deadline is September 23, 2008, and the online application is at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

“There is no question that the universities and colleges who have made an effort to participate and win the Honor Roll award are themselves being rewarded today,” said David Ward, President of the American Council on Education. “Earning this distinction is not easy. But now each of these schools will be able to wear this award like a badge of honor.”

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. Using Independent Sector’s estimates of the value of volunteer time, college student volunteering was worth more than $5.6 billion last year. The U.S. Department of Education found a growing service-learning trend, with more schools offering service-learning as part of their curriculum. Students who participate in service-learning are more likely to continue service in college. In 2005, the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute reported that two-thirds of entering college students believed it was very important to help others, which is the highest percentage in the last 25 years.

Expanding campus incentives for service is part of a larger initiative to spur higher levels of volunteering by America’s college students. In 2006, the Corporation set a national goal of engaging 5 million college students in service annually by the year 2010 as part of its five-year strategic plan. The agency is working with a coalition of federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organizations to achieve this goal. Each year, the Corporation invests more than $150 million in fostering a culture of service on college campuses through grants awarded by its main programs; the education awards that AmeriCorps members receive at the conclusion of their term of service to pay for college; and through support of training, research, recognition, and other initiatives to spur college service.

The Corporation’s Learn and Serve America program, in particular, is a catalyst for service-learning programs nationwide that connect community service with academic curriculum. Through these programs, in class and in extracurricular activities, college students serve others in their communities while strengthening their academic and civic skills. In addition, service-learning fosters partnerships between colleges and their communities that strengthens communities and meets immediate community needs.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. Each year, the Corporation engages four million Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America programs. For more information, visit http://www.nationalservice.gov.

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