LWC Receives National Award for Commitment to Community Service

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Lindsey Wilson College has received a national award for its students' community service.

The college 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. 

Lindsey Wilson is among more than 700 U.S. colleges and universities who received the honor from the Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual Honor Roll award. The schools were recognized for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice.

"One of the most important things we stress to our students is the importance of serving others," said Amy Thompson-Wells, LWC director of civic engagement and student leadership and co-director of the Bonner Leaders Program. "Earning a college education and getting a job are wonderful goals, but they must be balanced with a spirit to serve our fellow citizens and make this world a better place."

Last school year, Lindsey Wilson students combined to give more than 13,000 hours of community service on the local, regional and national levels, Thompson-Wells said. The college also has a cadre of more than 50 undergraduate students "who are committed to doing some kind of service project every week," Thompson Wells said.

The service projects include volunteering at after-school programs, working on environmental issues and other social issues.

And Lindsey Wilson students' commitment to serve others has been noticed.

"Lindsey Wilson's selection to the Honor Roll is recognition from the highest levels of the federal government of its commitment to service and civic engagement on its campus and in our nation," said Elson B. Nash, acting director of Learn and Serve America with the Corporation for National and Community Service.

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. 

"Our nation's students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face," said Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. "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 were 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.

Nationally, 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, published by Corporation for National and Community Service.

The Corporation for National and Community Service 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.

More ...
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more 5 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, go to: www.nationalservice.gov.