March 02, 2010
Queens, NY -
St.
John’s University has been named to the 2009 President’s Higher
Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal
recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment
to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.
View the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll
Video
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which
administers the annual Honor Roll award, recognized more than 700
colleges and universities for their impact on issues from poverty
and homelessness to environmental justice. On campuses across the
country, thousands of students joined their faculty to develop
innovative programs and projects to meet local needs using the
skills gained in their classrooms. Business students served as
consultants to budget-strapped nonprofits and businesses, law
students volunteered at legal clinics, and dozens of others
organized anti-hunger campaigns.
“Congratulations to St. John’s University and its students for
their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local
communities,” said Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for
National and Community Service. “Our nation’s students are a
critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle
the most persistent challenges we face. They have achieved
impactful results and demonstrated the value of putting knowledge
into practice to help renew America through service.”
The
Honor Roll includes six colleges and universities that are
recognized as Presidential Awardees, with an additional 115 named
to the Distinction List and 621 schools named as Honor Roll
members. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors
including the 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. Click here for
a full list of Honor Roll recipients.
“St. John’s University, founded in 1870 by the Vincentian
Community, is guided by its mission of service to the poor and
underserved,” said James P. Pellow, Ed.D., Executive Vice President
and Chief Operating Officer at St. John’s. “Our primary goal is to
combine academic study with service learning opportunities,
professional training and real-world experience to our more than
20,000 students within a diverse and highly supportive community
both domestically and globally. We are honored to be recognized
with this select group of prestigious institutions of higher
education devoted to quality community service initiatives.”
One of St. John’s University’s bold new initiatives is its Vincentian Institute for Social
Action (“VISA”) program. VISA encourages collaboration by areas
and units throughout the university community – all colleges and
schools, student life, and campus ministry – in activities designed
to advance the Vincentian commitment to social justice and systemic
change. Students have the opportunity to combine study in their
academic discipline with service and experience that helps them
develop the knowledge and skills necessary to make a difference in
the lives of those in need.
St. John’s University seeks to provide students with a strong
and distinctive spiritual, values-based education. VISA fosters
development of a worldview that recognizes global interdependence
and the need for all people to work together toward universal
social justice. VISA is comprised of four interrelated units: a
newly constituted Faculty Research Consortium; the Ozanam Scholars
Program; Academic Service Learning; and a re-established St. John’s
University Press.
College students make a significant contribution to the volunteer
sector; in 2009, 3.16 million students performed more than 300
million hours of service, according to the Volunteering in America
study released by the Corporation. Each year, the Corporation
invests more than $150 million in fostering a culture of service on
college campuses through grants awarded by its programs; the
education awards that AmeriCorps members receive at the conclusion
of their term of service to pay for college; and through support of
training, research, recognition, and other initiatives to spur
college service.
The Corporation oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with
the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on
Education.
About The Corporation for National and
Community Service
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal
agency that engages more five million Americans in service through
its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs,
and leads President Obama's national call to service initiative,
United We Serve. For more information, visit
www.nationalservice.gov.
About St John’s University
St. John's is one of America's leading Catholic universities –
nationally ranked (by The Princeton Review and U.S. News &
World Report) and recognized for its superb academic programs,
diverse student life, New York vitality and BIG EAST athletic
excitement. Founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Community, the
University currently enrolls more than 20,000 undergraduate and
graduate students from 48 states and 122 countries. In addition,
St. John’s accommodates more than 4,000 residence students at six
campus locations (Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan and Oakdale, New
York as well as Rome, Italy and Paris, France).
St. John’s values its investment in education and provides the
necessary resources to support student scholarships, faculty and
academic programs, technological advances and the building and
modernization of new facilities (both academic and athletic). St.
John’s University is the perfect choice for an affordable,
high-quality private education that blends academic study, service
learning opportunities, professional training and real-world
experience within a diverse and highly supportive community both
domestically and globally. For more information about St John’s
University, visit www.stjohns.edu.