PR2009 Feb 9

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 9, 2009                                                                                      

 Shelton State Named to Presidential Honor Roll

For Community Service

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Shelton State Community College today as one of six schools from Alabama with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.   

“I am delighted with this recognition, because it speaks to the quality of our faculty, staff and students,” said Shelton State Community College President, Dr. Mark Heinrich. “Community Service has always been an integral part of Shelton State’s identity in West Alabama, and I am so honored that our efforts have been recognized in this way.”

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.

Locally, more than 120 Shelton State students and another nine members of the school’s faculty and staff contributed nearly 2,100 hours of service to the community in two separate projects. The first was School-Bucs, a comprehensive effort involving SSCC students involved in athletics, nursing, Phi Theta Kappa, Student Ambassadors and the arts to impact students in 15 area schools in the service region of West Alabama. During the initiative, Student-athletes led drug and alcohol education and prevention awareness; nursing students provided health and fitness screenings; PTK members participated in a community readership program for 90 students; and ambassador activities ranged from tutoring to lunchroom and nutrition awareness to Fall and Spring Festival leadership. Music students, in cooperation with the West Alabama Arts Council, presented “Bach to Rock” programs to more than 4,000 school children, introducing them to a variety of music while schools face declines in funding for the arts.

Shelton’s second project also included many of its athletes, as members of the women’s soccer team provided coaching leadership to area youth in three different soccer leagues during the 2007-08 year. One local youth recreational soccer league benefited from more than 430 hours of service from 18 SSCC players, while another league paired 10 more with 50 young athletes for a six-week season. Additionally, two area high schools received volunteer coaching support from the Lady Bucs for their 15-pre-and in-season activities.

“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 Shelton State Community College 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.

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