GCSU makes the grade for service honor roll

     GCSU was recently named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service. This award is given to schools that display exemplary service efforts, as well as volunteer with children and disadvantaged youth.
     Beginning in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is awarded to schools with a commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. This award is jointly sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, 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.
     Recognized as the highest federal recognition, the schools chosen for the Community Service Honor Roll award are acknowledged for their dedication to service in their communities.
     The Corporation for National and Community Service says, “By engaging our nation’s young people in service-learning, Learn and Serve America instills an ethic of lifelong community service.”
     When choosing the recipients of this prestigious award, many selection factors weigh on the final result. These selection qualifications include the creativity of the provided service projects, the numerical percentage of student involvement, incentives for volunteering and the offered service-learning projects. The Corporation for National and Community Service looks to grant appreciation to institutions of higher education that provides exemplary volunteering opportunities.
     “Volunteerism and intramurals have been the biggest areas of growth in the last ten years. We are tapping into students who think that volunteering is a high value,” Dr. Bruce Harshbarger, vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students, said.
     In the 2007 academic year alone, 1,214 students performed more than 30,635 volunteer hours in the community. More than 30,000 service learning hours were not included in the tally.    Overall, GCSU students gave more than 60,000 hours back to the Baldwin community. Multiplying these hours to the amount of money each hour is worth ($18.77) would equal over one million dollars of community service. According to Kendall Stiles, director of The GIVE Center, tracking the hours of volunteers has become essential to gaining recognition for all the progress made.
     “This award validates what we hold as a value at the core of the university as far as service and giving back. It’s always nice to have someone recognize the things you are doing,” Stiles said.
     Whether donating blood to the American Red Cross, mentoring children in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program or bagging potatoes for the hungry, GCSU students have been making a major difference in the community.
     “Service is very much ingrained into our faculty and staff, as well as our students. This is part of who we are and what we are supposed to do,” says Stiles.
     Harshbarger reiterates this as he says, “Service and civic engagement are key concepts in GCSU’s curriculum as Georgia’s Public Liberal Arts University. The work of The GIVE Center is one of the most powerful and productive vehicles by which GCSU fulfills its unique mission.”
     This award is only the latest in The GIVE Center’s long list of honors. The GIVE Center has been deemed a national “point of light” and has earned the university recognition from the   Templeton University as a top school in American colleges and universities that build character. Furthermore, The GIVE Center is the only university-based “Hands-On Georgia” grant recipient.
     Overall, the Community Service Honor Roll award was a high honor that further recognized all the work being done by GCSU. Stile’s outlook on volunteering clearly exemplifies why The GIVE Center is so successful.
     “It’s not just about what you are doing today, it’s how or what your doing today that is going to solve a problem down the road,” says Stiles.
     For more information go to http://www.nationalservice.gov. or www.learnandserve.gov.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 7 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry