Feb. 25, 2010

California State University, Monterey Bay has been named to the 2009 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction.

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 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.

CSUMB is the only school in California and one of only five in the country that requires students to take Service Learning courses. Requirements include a lower division general education class and an upper division course in each major.

Last year, more than 1,700 CSUMB students contributed 58,000 hours of service to more than 400 community organizations in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties. That equals an investment of $1.1 million in local schools and nonprofits.

An outstanding example of a collaborative community-university service project is the Chinatown Renewal Project in Salinas. It focuses on creating a safe, welcoming and revitalized neighborhood that embraces its cultural history.

CSU Monterey Bay students from eight disciplines – humanities; business; environmental science, technology and policy; health and wellness; information technology; teledramatic arts and technology; visual and public art and service learning – provided more than 3,800 hours of service with a variety of community partners associated with the project during the 2008-09 academic year.

Other Service Learning students worked as technology tutors. Still others worked on environmental justice projects. Some did community-based watershed restoration.

Six schools received Presidential Awards. In addition, 115 were named to the Distinction List and 621 schools were named to the Honor Roll. In total, 742 schools were recognized. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, in collaboration with the departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education.

"Congratulations to CSU Monterey Bay and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities," said Patrick Corvington, CEO of the corporation.

"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 impactful results and demonstrated the value of putting knowledge into practice to help renew America through service," Mr. Corvington said.

Recent studies have underlined the importance of service learning and volunteering to college students. In 2009, 3.16 million college students gave more than 300 million hours of volunteer 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 for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. It 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.