Calvin named to President's Honor Roll for service-learning

Calvin 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.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual honor roll award, recognized more than 700 colleges and universities. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors including the scope and innovation of service projects, the percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.

For a full list of honor roll recipients, visit http://www.learnandserve.gov/pdf/10_0225_lsa_honorrollfulllist.pdf.

"We are delighted to receive the Honor Roll distinction," said Jeff Bouman, director of the service-learning center at Calvin, "and [we] see it as an affirmation of past commitments and a call to deeper and more engaged learning in our local community in the years to come."

The Calvin College student population logged more than 40,000 service-learning hours this past school year, an increase of nearly 14 percent from a year prior. Calvin students completed 3,078 service-learning opportunities in 2008-2009, and 130 courses incorporated service-learning into the curricula.

"We've been at this since the early 1960s and have been able to see the social service infrastructure within the city of Grand Rapids changed as a result of the commitment of some of our alumni who have dedicated themselves to lives of service and social change," said Bouman. "It is rewarding-45 years into the college's formal commitments to local service initiatives-to be able to send current students into local partnerships that are led by committed folks."

Calvin College students consistently demonstrate a commitment to serving their community. The college offers students opportunities to tutor and mentor high school students in Grand Rapids, work on local service projects, and participate in the annual StreetFest program, just to name a few. Students also have opportunities to participate in service--earning spring break trips in communities across the country. And last year, 200 Calvin students volunteered to help host the Special Olympics Spring Games.

On a national level, 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 for National and Community Service. 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.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than 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.

For more information, contact Calvin's service-learning center at 616-526-6455 or slc@calvin.edu.

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Received on Sat Feb 27 08:28:20 2010