February 20, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - The Corporation for National and Community Service named Western Kentucky University to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.
“This award affirms our strong commitment to Community Service in its broadest sense,” WKU Provost Barbara Burch said. “It reflects good programming across all colleges at WKU that not only benefits the community, but also showcases our faculty and students at the highest levels of academic quality.”
Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school 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 innovativeness 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.
In its application for the award, WKU estimated that 3,533 students participated in academic service-learning and community service and completed 147,500 hours of service. Projects included health screenings by the Institute for Rural Health Development and Research’s mobile health unit; participation in the Students in Free Enterprise program; numerous projects in the Applied Research and Technology Program; volunteer efforts through the WKU ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships; and arts programs to serve local school children and their families.
WKU was one of two schools in Kentucky to receive the “With Distinction” recognition.
“College students like those at Western Kentucky University are tackling the toughest problems in America, demonstrating their compassion, commitment, and creativity in by serving as mentors, tutors, health workers, and even engineers,” said Liz Seale, Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service. “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, 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.”
Overall, the Community Service Honor Roll awarded six schools with Presidential Awards. In addition, four schools were recognized as Special Achievement Award winners, 127 as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 391 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 528 schools were recognized. A full list is available 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,” said American Council on Education President David Ward. “Earning this distinction is not easy. But now each of these schools will be able to wear this award like a badge of honor.”
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, visit http://www.nationalservice.gov.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Doug McElroy at (270) 745-7009.
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