Brookdale Community College received national recognition Bayshore Courier News Posted:03/02/10
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Lincroft (Monmouth County, NJ) - Brookdale Community 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 for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice. 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.
"Congratulations to Brookdale Community College and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities," said Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. "Our nation's students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face. They have achieved impacted 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 are 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.
Brookdale's Acting President Margaret McMenamin credits the College's Career Services' staff for emphasizing the service component. "Led by Director Linda Mass, the staff is committed to encouraging our students to understand the value of good citizenship and the responsibilities contained therein. Our role in serving the community is not just a word in our college's name: it's a fundamental pillar in our mission as a comprehensive community college."
Brookdale Community College's Service-Learning combines academic study and community service, providing a unique opportunity for students to learn through active participation in organized service experiences in the community. Service-Learning puts education into action, leading out from the self into the world.
An average of 400 Brookdale students participates in the Service-Learning each year from courses such as Criminal Justice, Environmental Studies, Nursing, Sociology, Computer Science, Psychology, Political Science, and Women's Studies.. Students are providing over 13,000 hours of community service to hundreds of community agencies, in activities such as teacher's aides, tutoring at-risk-youth, serving food at soup kitchens, reading to the aged, mentoring middle school students, cleaning streams and lakes, testing local waterways for pollutants, supervising after-school programs, providing health care, and teaching English as a second language.
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. 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.
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The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more 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 nationalservice.gov.
