February 11, 2009
The Corporation for National and Community Service honored St.
John’s University (NY) today with a place on the President’s Higher
Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service
efforts and service to America’s communities.
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 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.
“St. John’s University is extremely proud to be placed on this
prestigious Honor Roll and to be recognized for our mission-based
commitment to service,” said James P. Pellow, Ed.D., Executive Vice
President and Chief Operating Officer of St. John’s. “It certainly
validates our commitment to continuing our service efforts through
our newest initiative, the
Vincentian Institute for Social Action (VISA). The Institute
will further our educational vision by creating a
teaching-research-community service model that will enable the
university to broaden its outreach to the disadvantaged across the
nation and around the globe.”
A unique approach to combining learning and service, the Vincentian
Institute for Social Action will offer St. John’s students a
structured environment in which the demands of the classroom and
the needs of the community are simultaneously engaged. As students
gain insight into the causes and consequences of poverty through
classroom study and research, they will participate in community
service programs that will have specific goals and objectives.
Outcomes will be carefully assessed to ensure that service
activities have resulted in real change in the lives of the
disadvantaged and that the programs that have been created are
sustainable to promote long term success and empowerment.
“While academic service-learning is but one component of the
Vincentian Institute for Social Action, it is pivotal to ensuring
that our students are engaged with and committed to helping those
less fortunate at this critical and difficult time in our nation’s
history,” added Dr. Pellow.
“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 St. John’s University 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 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 www.nationalservice.gov.
Interested media representatives can contact Dominic Scianna,
Assistant Vice President for Media Relations at St. John’s
University by calling (718) 990-6185 or e-mail inquiries to
sciannad@stjohns.edu. Information regarding St. John’s can be found
by visiting the University web site at www.stjohns.edu/news.