The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll “recognizes higher education institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities.” Engagement with our respective communities occurs through our service to those communities. The Honor Roll describes community service as
activities designed to improve the quality of life of off-campus community residents, particularly low-income individuals. Community service activities may include but are not limited to: academic service learning, co-curricular service-learning (not part of an academic course, but utilizing service-learning elements), and other co-curricular student volunteer activities, as well as Federal Work-Study community service and paid community service internships. Community service includes both direct service to citizens (e.g., serving food to the needy) and indirect service (e.g., assessing community nutrition needs or managing a food bank).
The honor roll recognizes the following categories, described by the Corporation for National & Community Service, of service:
General Community Service
This category is for “institutions that have made a commitment to improving the quality of life of off-campus community residents, particularly low-income individuals. Institution applying in this category will be those engaged in service that addresses education, health, economic opportunity, the environment, disaster preparedness, or other human needs including support for veterans and military families.”
Education
This category is for “institutions that have made a commitment to improving educational outcomes for children and youth in pre-kindergarten through undergraduate education. Institutions applying in this category will be those engaged in service that address school readiness, strengthens schools, addresses early warning indicators such as attendance and behavior issues, boosts high school graduation rates, and/or helps to prepare youth for college success.”
Economic Opportunity
This category is for “institutions with service programs that build economic independence, increase family stability, and create more sustainable and resilient communities. Institutions applying in this category will be engaged in service that improves the financial well-being and security of economically disadvantaged individuals.”
In June 2016 the institution applied for recognition on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll under the category of General Community Service. Recognition is also given for work in the area of Education, Economic Opportunity, which will be targeted in future applications.
Marshall University has applied to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for recognition of work completed in the 2014-2015 academic year. The results of that application will be released sometime in late 2016. In that application, we reported:
- 530 students who engaged in academic service learning
- 1820 students who engaged in co-curricular service learning
- 2350 total number of students who engaged in community service of any kind
- 1605 students who engaged in at least 20 hours of any kind of community service per academic term
- 153,333 total number of community service hours engaged in by our students
Presently, we are collecting data for our next application concerning the 2015-2016 academic year.