Service Week '09: Lipscomb jumps to <em>Distinction</em> level in national Service Honor Roll

Janel Shoun | 

 
For the second year in a row, the Corporation for National and Community Service has honored Lipscomb University with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.
 
In only its second year on the honor roll, Lipscomb moved up from the Honor Roll category (with 546 schools this year) to the Honor Roll with Distinction category (with only 83 schools this year). Only four universities in Tennessee were selected for the Honor Roll with Distinction.
 
Lipscomb inclusion on the President’s Service Honor Roll is due to its long-standing tradition of service as well as newer innovations in the last few years. For years, Lipscomb students have participated in mission trips, the annual Service Day and service club projects.
 
More recently, all incoming students are required to participate in service through the SALT Program as a graduation requirement. In addition, new service-oriented courses have been established, such as the LIFE program which brings Lipscomb’s traditional students into the Tennessee Prison for Women to study with the inmates enrolled in for-credit courses.
 
Thanks to the newly implemented SALT Program, Lipscomb University was named one of the top 25 “Programs to Look For” in service learning nationally in U.S. News & World Report’s “2009 America’s Best Colleges.”
 
Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award 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.
 
“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 Lipscomb University for making community service a campus priority, and thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America through service to others.”
 
In total, 635 schools were recognized. A full list 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. 
 
Lipscomb’s SALT Program (Serving and learning Together) is one of only a few Tennessee programs featured in Beyond the Books’ A Guide to Service-Learning Colleges and Universities, and the Lipscomb campus was chosen to host one of the first meetings of the Tennessee Campus Compact, the state chapter of a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement, and service-learning in higher 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 volunteering by America’s college students. The Corporation is working with a coalition of federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organizations to achieve this goal.
 

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 Serve America, a program that supports service-learning in schools, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations.