The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Monroe Community College on Monday, Feb. 9, with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.
“Being an active, engaged partner in this community is fundamental to our mission,” said MCC Interim President Larry Tyree. “Combining civic engagement with academic coursework has not only led to the development of innovative approaches to instruction for our faculty, it has significantly enhanced the learning experience for our students. When we can ignite that spark, when we can help students make the connection that their quality of life is enhanced by their commitment to the well-being of their neighbors, the Rochester community benefits greatly.”
Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a college 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 innovation 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.
Monroe Community College is one of only five community colleges in New York state to earn a place on the Community Service Honor Roll. Last year, more than 35 student clubs and organizations at MCC completed at least one community service project during the academic year; most completed more. Their efforts included food drives, street cleanups, book collections and fundraisers. During that same period, 439 MCC students, who were enrolled in 25 different service learning courses, contributed 13,400 hours to a wide variety of community projects. They developed workshops for afterschool programs on personal and cyber safety issues. They tutored, developed literacy kits, painted portraits for the students of Rochester’s Freedom School and created a mural that celebrates the college’s integral connection to the downtown community.
“In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever. College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges,” said Stephen Goldsmith, vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the Honor Roll. “We salute Monroe Community 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.”
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 "https://www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll".
The Honor Roll is a program of 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. 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,” said American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad.
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. Expanding campus incentives for service is part of a larger initiative to spur higher levels of volunteering by America’s college students. The Corporation is working with a coalition of federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organizations to achieve this goal.
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters 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 "https://www.nationalservice.gov".
Janet Ekis
College and Community Relations
02/10/2009 |