APPLETON, WIS. — Exemplary service efforts have earned Lawrence University a spot on the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll announced today (2/9) by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Lawrence is one of only four Wisconsin institutions that has been named to the Community Service Honor Roll every year since the program was launched in 2006.
“I couldn’t be more proud to have our students’ good efforts beyond the campus borders be recognized nationally once again,” said Lawrence President Jill Beck. “I salute our students, and the faculty and staff who work with them, for the breadth and quality of their efforts to build a stronger community.”
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 are 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 the past year, Lawrence, with an enrollment of 1,400, documented more than 9,000 service hours involving at least 400 students, including more than 20 students who performed at least 20 hours of service per week. Of that total, approximately 600 hours were devoted to this year’s designated service area: high school completion and college readiness.
Among the initiatives for which Lawrence was recognized was the Lawrence Assistance Reaching Youth (LARY) Buddies, a mentoring program for at-risk elementary students; a program of foreign language and culture presentations in local schools; the Confidence and Determination in Youth (CADY) student organization which provides younger students an inspirational, college-like experience in learning, and the establishment of a long-term partnership between Lawrence and the Appleton Fire Department to enhance fire safety education.
“Even in the midst of a demanding academic program, our students routinely extend themselves on behalf of others in the community, which speaks volumes about their character” said Alan Parks, Lawrence’s Pieper Family Professor of Servant Leadership and director of the college’s Office for Engaged Learning. “It’s wonderful that their efforts are recognized on a national stage like this.”
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.
