Elon tops in the nation for community service

More than 500 colleges and universities submitted applications for the honor roll. Elon University, along with California State University, Monterey Bay, and Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, received Presidential Awards for community service. They were recognized for a high level of innovation and effectiveness in their service programs. Three other universities, Louisiana State, Tulane and Jackson State, received Presidential Awards for hurricane relief.

“Elon University truly sets an example for college civic engagement,” said Stephen Goldsmith, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which fosters a culture of volunteering and service in America. “Community service is of growing importance on college campuses across the country, and Elon is a model for how to achieve success through service.”

The award, which will be presented during an Oct. 17 ceremony in Chicago, includes a $5,000 prize from the Case Foundation to support community service activities and a special certificate signed by President George W. Bush. Elon University President Leo M. Lambert will accept the award, and Elon senior Katie Franck, who has been an active volunteer throughout her college career, has been selected to speak at the event, providing a student perspective on the value of service.

“I do think college kids are given a bad rap,” Franck told a reporter for the Associated Press. “When they’re given the opportunities and it’s facilitated the right way, they’re willing to donate a lot of time and energy to others.”

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Also attending the ceremony are G. Smith Jackson, vice president for student life and dean of students; Nancy Midgette, associate provost; and Mary Morrison, director of Elon’s Kernodle Center for Service Learning.

“Elon’s commitment to an ethic of service is reflected daily through the work of our students, faculty and staff,” said Elon President Leo M. Lambert. “Among those who deserve special credit for this honor are human services professor Pam Kiser, who coordinates service learning courses, sociology professor Tom Arcaro, who directs Elon’s Project Pericles, and assistant dean of students Jeff Stein, who provides leadership for Elon’s Kernodle Center for Service Learning.”

Nearly 90 percent of Elon students participate in service activities during their time at the university, working through the Kernodle Center for Service Learning, academic service-learning courses, the student-run Elon Volunteers, fraternities and sororities and 27 other student organizations. More than 2,800 Elon students participated in a variety of community service projects during the 2005-2006 academic year, contributing more than 88,000 hours of service. Approximately 350 students contributed more than 8,000 hours of service to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Students, faculty and staff made five relief trips to Bay St. Louis, Miss., and raised $53,000 in cash and in-kind donations for hurricane victims.

Five exemplary programs highlighted in Elon’s nomination were the following:

• America Reads/Federal Work Study – During the past year, 20 Elon students spent 6,200 hours tutoring in five elementary schools in Alamance County as part of America Reads, a federal program to ensure that every American child can read well and independently by the end of third grade. In addition, 66 other work-study students spent more than 10,000 hours working with Alamance County Meals on Wheels, American Red Cross, Burlington Housing Authority, Exchange Club Child Abuse Prevention Center of N.C., the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club and United Way of Alamance County, VP Foundation and the Women’s Resource Center.
• Academic Service-Learning Courses – During the past year, 28 faculty members taught 37 service-learning courses that allowed students to apply discipline-specific knowledge to community issues, contributing more than 21,000 hours of service locally and internationally.
• Leaders in Collaborative Service (LINCS) – A grant from the Frueauff Foundation allows Elon to place students with community organizations to serve as volunteer coordinators. In addition, the Community Partner Initiative provides grants for service-learning courses which faculty create to respond to an identified community need.
• Project Pericles – Elon is a founding member of Project Pericles, a national organization that challenges colleges to provide a learning experience that instills a sense of social and civic responsibility in students. Approximately 35 students are chosen from each class to serve as Periclean Scholars, who take a series of courses and activities over three years culminating in a class project that addresses a local or global problem.
• Tutor/Mentor Programs – During the past year, about 100 Elon students mentored 150 elementary and middle school students in 24 schools and community organizations. Among the efforts were Lunch Buddies, weekly visits by Elon students to meet for lunch with elementary school students; Mis Amigos, targeting Spanish-speaking students for tutoring and friendship; and One-to-One, a tutoring program targeted at schools that have not met the No Child Left Behind standards.

The award presentations are made along with the release by the Corporation for National and Community Service of a comprehensive study showing college student civic engagement has risen 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 Corporation for National and Community Service is working with other federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organizations to increase the number of college student participating in volunteer service to 5 million college students annually by 2010. Click here for more details on the report.

The President’s Higher Education Community Service 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 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. President Lambert serves as a member of the Campus Compact national board as well as chair of the Executive Board of the North Carolina Campus Compact, whose state office is hosted by Elon University.

An independent federal agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service works to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster 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.