ODU RECEIVES PRESIDENT'S HONOR ROLL AWARD FOR SERVICE
The Corporation for National and Community Service has named Old Dominion University to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.
Winners were announced Monday, Feb. 11, at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education in San Diego. In total, 528 schools were recognized. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
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 innovativeness 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.
Old Dominion was selected for the award in the areas of General Community Service and Special Focus Area. The university was chosen based on its far-reaching efforts and innovativeness with regard to successful service projects. Among the selected services and activities ODU was rated on are: Community Care Day, which has expanded from cleaning up litter in area neighborhoods to include volunteer service with local schools, libraries and hospitals; providing nursing students to offer clinics for diabetes and blood pressure testing in seniors' homes; participation in the annual Relay for Life fundraiser for cancer research; a variety of sorority and fraternity charitable activities; adoption of a local school by the ROTC units, which involves assisting teachers and mentoring disadvantaged students; providing free tuition for economically disadvantaged children to attend an oceanography summer camp; working with the Achievable Dream School, which takes only children with serious behavioral problems; and sponsoring the annual Lambert's Point Program, which provides free educational classes and recreational activities to young students from an economically deprived neighborhood near the campus.
It was further noted in the application process that all first-year ODU students participate in service learning through a required course and that all organized student groups take part in volunteer activities.
The Honor Roll is jointly sponsored by the Corporation, 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.
In congratulating the winners, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said, "Americans rely on our higher education system to prepare students for citizenship and the workforce. We look to institutions like these to provide leadership in partnering with local schools to shape the civic, democratic and economic future of our country."
"There is no question that the universities and colleges who have made an effort to participate and win the Honor Roll award are themselves being rewarded," said American Council on Education President David Ward. "Earning this distinction is not easy. But now each of these schools will be able to wear this award like a badge of honor."
The Honor Roll is jointly sponsored by the Corporation, 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.
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 http://www.nationalservice.gov.