For the second straight year, Union has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for exemplary service to the local community. The awards were announced in Washington, D.C. by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
The honor roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service learning and civic engagement.
In 2008-09, nearly 1,100 Union students participated in a range of community service projects, representing more than 12,000 hours of service.
Volunteers at the Kenney Community Center tutored and read to local children, acted as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and participated in the state Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Program (VITA). Since its launch in 2005, Union’s VITA program has secured nearly $2 million in cumulative tax refunds for local residents.
Kenney Center Director Angela Tatem said being named to the honor roll inspired her group to introduce incoming first-year students to community service at Union as part of a pre-orientation program. For three days in early September, several dozen students helped Habitat for Humanity of Schenectady County hang drywall in a new home and pitched in with Boys and Girls Clubs of Schenectady to spruce up Camp Lovejoy, a retreat for inner city youth.
Other highlights included a new youth boxing and tutoring program called Champions, the first Children’s Health Carnival and the creation of a Habitat for Humanity club. Also, Anthropology of Poverty became a service learning class.
In addition, all sororities and fraternities do community service projects, as do athletic teams, many Theme Houses and clubs.
“Community service is an integral part of the Union experience, and we are honored for the recognition of the work done on a daily basis by our students, staff and faculty,” Tatem said.
The honor roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, 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.
Recipients are chosen based on a number of factors, including scope and innovation of service projects, student participation and incentives for service.
The awards will be presented at the American Council on Education’s annual meeting in Phoenix in March and at the National Conference of Volunteering and Service Conference in New York City in June.
To learn more, click here.