ECU named to 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll

GREENVILLE, NC — For the fourth year in a row, East Carolina University has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

“This is national recognition for the entire ECU community,” said Mike Loeffelman, volunteer coordinator for the university’s Volunteer and Service-Learning Center [VSLC]. “Students, faculty and staff were all involved in a variety of innovative service projects to support a range of diverse communities. The Volunteer and Service-Learning Center is proud to support a community of individuals that spend a great deal of time assisting those in need.”

The VSLC strives to engage students in activities that strengthen communities, promote an enduring commitment to civic responsibility and enhance the academic experience. More than 11,000 students are registered at the VSLC, and students performed more than 161,700 hours of service last year for a wide-range of projects and organizations.

“Congratulations to East Carolina University and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities,” said Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the Honor Roll. “Our nation’s students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face. They have achieved impactful results and demonstrated the value of putting knowledge into practice to help renew America through service.”

The 2009 Honor Roll includes six colleges and universities that are recognized as Presidential Awardees, with an additional 115 named to the Distinction List and 621 schools named as Honor Roll members. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the 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. Click here for a full list of Honor Roll recipients.

ECU has been named to the Honor Roll each year since the recognition program began in 2006.

Awards will be presented at the American Council on Education annual meeting in Phoenix, Ariz., in March and at the National Conference of Volunteering and Service Conference in New York in June.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. Each year, the Corporation invests more than $150 million in fostering a culture of service on college campuses through grants awarded by its programs; the education awards that AmeriCorps members receive at the conclusion of their term of service to pay for college; and through support of training, research, recognition, and other initiatives to spur college service. The Corporation oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education.

For more information on the Corporation, visit www.nationalservice.gov. For information on the Volunteer and Service-Learning Center, visit www.ecu.edu/vslc.