Local Colleges and Universities Receive Presidential Recognition for Community Service

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the U.S. Department of Education recently announced winners of the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll—the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to community service. And many local colleges and universities were among the 642 recognized for their support of volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement.

“Through service, these institutions are creating the next generation of leaders by challenging students to tackle tough issues and create positive impacts in the community,” said Robert Velasco, Acting CEO of CNCS. “We applaud the Honor Roll schools, their faculty and students for their commitment to make service a priority in and out of the classroom.”

On campuses across the country, millions of college students are engaged in innovative projects to meet local needs, often using the skills learned in classrooms. Out of hundreds of institutions applying for Honor Roll status, only five schools were named Presidential Awardees—Carson-Newman College, Miami University, North Carolina State University, Seattle University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Locally, James Madison University and Washington & Lee University were among a select group of institutions earning places on the Honor Roll with Distinction. Thirty other area colleges were named to the Honor Roll including American, Georgetown, George Washington, Goucher, Loyola, Stevenson, Towson, UMBC, Bluefield, Bridgewater, the College of William & Mary, Emory & Henry College (a previous Presidential Award winner), Hollins, Lynchburg, Marymount, the University of Mary Washington, Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Union University.
College students make significant contributions to the volunteer sector, and the availability of service learning opportunities is becoming increasingly important to high school students seeking civic engagement. According the annual CNCS Volunteering in America report, 3.1 million college students dedicated more than 312 million hours of service to communities across the country, service valued at more than $6.6 billion.

CNCS oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education. Honorees were chosen based on a number of factors including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, school commitment to campus-community partnerships, and measurable community outcomes.

For more information or to learn how colleges are integrating volunteerism and service learning into their educational programs, visit http://www.nationalservice.gov/.