USC Aiken Receives President's Honor Roll Award for Service
University Honored for Distinguished Community Service
February 15, 2008
The Corporation for National and Community Service named the University of South Carolina Aiken to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.
“This is an important recognition for our University,” said Dr. Tom Hallman, chancellor. “At USC Aiken, we strive to promote four core university values: character, citizenship, collegiality, and a high quality learning environment. This award is a testament to our students’ commitment to these values and an example of how they have applied them through community service and civic engagement.”
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.
Under the guidance of Angel Lee, assistant director of student involvement, over 35 percent of all USC Aiken students participate year-round in a variety of service projects and activities. Annual events, including the First Day of Service, held the first week of the fall semester, provide students with service opportunities and the ability to interact with other students.
In October 2006 and 2007, a group of over 50 students traveled to New Orleans to assist with Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts through Alternative Fall Break. Twenty students will have a similar opportunity next month in Miami during Alternative Spring Break, when they help build a house through the organization Habitat for Humanity.
Recently, the University’s first-ever Dance Marathon raised nearly $5000 for the Medical College of Georgia’s Children’s Medical Center. Other events sponsored through USC Aiken’s Office of Student Involvement include Sleep Out for the Homeless, Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, the Hunger Banquet, the Campus Beautification Project, Relay for Life, the Angel Tree Project, and the Volunteer Fair.
“College students are tackling the toughest problems in America, demonstrating their compassion, commitment, and creativity 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, go to http://www.nationalservice.gov.
