La Salle Named to
Presidential Honor Roll for Community Service

For the third year in a row, The Corporation for National and Community Service has honored La Salle University with a place on the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America's communities.

"This honor is an affirmation of both the mission of La Salle University and the dedication of its students. La Salle students are prepared for informed service and progressive leadership when dealing with the challenges facing their communities," said Brother Bob Kinzler, F.S.C., Director of Ministry and Service at La Salle.

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a college 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.

"The Honor Roll recognizes the concrete ways that La Salle engages with the community; helping students to become involved citizens and explore who they will be in the world. Even after graduating from La Salle, the students take their commitment of service to others with them, sharing their talents and making a difference in the world," said Kinzler.

Each year, more than 1,300 La Salle students perform more than 45,000 hours of community service or service learning. One of La Salle's community service programs is Neighbor to Neighbor where students work with the residents in the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to La Salle's campus. Students establish a relationship with the neighbors and identify residents who are in need of some house work which the students perform on Saturday mornings such as painting, planting flowers, cleaning yards, or shoveling snow.

Linking community service with academic study, La Salle offers more than 40 courses with a service-learning component. Some of the 300 students enrolled in service-learning courses include communication students who have developed public relations campaigns for local non-profit organizations. In addition, social work students are often placed at local homeless shelters, nursing homes, and after-school centers to prepare the students for the required internships their junior and senior years.

"In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever. College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges," said Stephen Goldsmith, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the Honor Roll. "We salute La Salle University for making community service a campus priority."

Overall, the Corporation honored six schools with Presidential Awards. In addition, 83 were selected as Honor Roll with Distinction members and 546 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 635 schools were recognized. A full list of the honorees is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is presented during the annual conference of the American Council on Education.

"I offer heartfelt congratulations to those institutions named to the 2008 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. College and university students across the country are making a difference in the lives of others every day—as are the institutions that encourage their students to serve others," said Molly Corbett Broad, President of the American Council on Education.

Recent studies have underlined the importance of service-learning and volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 million college students gave more than 297 million hours of volunteer service, according to the Corporation's Volunteering in America 2007 study. Expanding campus incentives for service is part of a larger initiative to spur higher levels of volunteerism by America's college students. The Corporation is working with a coalition of federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organization to achieve this goal.

About the Corporation for National and Community 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. The Corporation administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Service 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.