Union has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for exemplary service to the local community.
The award was announced in Washington, D.C. this week by the Corporation for National and Community Service during the annual conference of the American Council on Education.
It is the highest federal recognition for a school’s commitment to service learning and civic engagement.
Honorees were chosen for, among other things, the scope and innovation of service projects, amount of student participation and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.
Last year, 762 Union students gave more than 7,700 hours of service to a range of projects. Volunteers at the Kenney Community Center tutored and read to local children, served as Big Brothers and Big Sisters and participated in the state Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Program (VITA). Since its launch in 2005, the VITA program at Union has secured some $1.4 million in cumulative tax refunds for local residents.
The entire campus community devoted hundreds of hours of volunteer time to renovate a home the College donated to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity for a Schenectady couple and their five children.
Union students, faculty and staff also spruced up the city during John Calvin Toll Community Service Day. And all sororities and fraternities sponsored service projects, as did athletic teams, many Theme Houses and clubs.
“Our students who give back to this community and to the community at large don't ask to be recognized; instead, they see that their work changes lives for the better, which is inspiring,” said Angela Tatem, Kenney Center director.
The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation.
Union is one of nine schools in New York and 83 in the nation named to the Honor Roll with Distinction. For the full list, go to: www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.