Loras

2/26/2010

Loras College has been named to the 2009 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction by the Corporation for National and Community Service. This is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. This is the third straight year that Loras has been named to the Honor Roll and the first year it has made the list with Distinction.

"Congratulations to Loras College 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. "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 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. Loras College is among the 115 named to the Distinction List. 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.

"Loras is proud to be named to the Honor Roll with Distinction for service efforts in 2008-09," said Loras College President Jim Collins. "This means Loras joins a small group of institutions across the nation recognized as the top tier of applicants for this prestigious national award."

During the 2008-09 academic year 1,067 Loras College students served approximately 33,000 hours of service, 440 of whom served 20 hours or more to the community. Students engaged in service with a large number of non-profit organizations, including St. Mark Community Center where Loras students comprised 60% of the afterschool program's volunteers in 2008-09. More than half of these students were required to serve with the program as part of a Multicultural Education class and an Honors class at the college and other students chose to serve as part of the college-sponsored leadership development programs, Federal Community Work Study program and the Iowa Campus Compact AmeriCorps program.

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. For more information, visit www.nationalservice.gov.