Kirsten Wilson moves a log during the winter service trip to tornado-ravaged Alabama in January. Photo courtesy of California Lutheran University.
University’s service learning, volunteering highlighted
THOUSAND OAKS — For the second year in a row, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the U.S. Department of Education honored California Lutheran University as a leader in volunteering, service learning and civic engagement, the university reported Wednesday in a media release.
CLU was named to the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for engaging students, faculty and staff in meaningful service. Selection criteria included the scope and innovation of service projects, integration of service learning into the curriculum, commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships, and measurable impact on communities.?
About 2,400 CLU students completed a total of 44,000 community service hours in the 2010-2011 year.
CLU faculty members from all disciplines provide service-learning opportunities as part of the effort to help students find their vocations. More than 60 students and faculty members in the Global Studies Program identified challenges facing immigrant communities and researched solutions. Seventy-five graduate psychology students counseled more than 200 low-income residents through the Community Counseling and Parent Child Study Center. The new Intimate Partner Violence Intervention Program assisted more than 150 adults and 84 children. Fifty financial-planning students and faculty members provided free information to low-income women online.
Volunteers recruited through CLU’s Community Service Center contributed more than 10,000 service hours through 39 programs. Many CLU students spent their breaks rebuilding homes destroyed by hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and participating in a service mission in El Salvador.?
All told, nearly 1 million students on the 513 campuses named to this year’s Honor Roll engaged in service learning, and more than 1.6 million participated in other forms of community service. ?
CNCS launched the Honor Roll in 2006 and oversees it in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education.??
The CNCS is a federal agency that engages more than 5 million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Social Innovation Fund programs. It also leads President Barack Obama’s national call-to-service initiative, United We Serve.