Date: February 9, 2009
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director,
Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu
PNC Named to President's Community Service Honor Roll
WESTVILLE – Purdue University North Central has for the third consecutive year been named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service in recognition of its students and their “exemplary service efforts and service to America 's communities.”
The Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service learning and civic engagement. Honorees were chosen based on a series of 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 is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, 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.
In recent years, PNC has eagerly taken on community service projects and faculty members have increasingly worked service learning into their classroom curricula.
“Our students consistently commit their time and talents to a number of worthwhile service learning projects that have provided immeasurable benefit to our community. We've come to realize that students who volunteer their time to the community as students in high school and college set a pattern of volunteerism that lasts through their adult lives,” said Dr. James B. Dworkin, PNC chancellor. “Our students are visible members of the community and pitch in to help in so many different ways. They are to be commended for their efforts.”
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.
PNC student activities in the community include:
Since January 2000, the Architectural Design - Light Commercial and Institutional class has provided architectural assistance to area non-profit organizations considering building projects. Clients include: Michiana Resources, Michigan City ; Porter-Starke Services, Valparaiso and Spiritual Science Church , Michigan City.
Students in the Construction Club and those in the Organizational Leadership and Supervision Servant Leadership Class have a history of helping with the Rebuilding Together Duneland Project. Students have raised money for the project and dozens of students have donated many hours of work to paint, remodel, repair and refurbish homes of people who cannot do the work themselves.
More than 50 students participated in Martin Luther King Jr. Day events throughout the community on MLK day, working more than 200 volunteer hours at the LaPorte YMCA, Michiana Resources and Stepping Stone shelter's Bridge daycare center.
PNC softball players and their fellow students hosted a Breast Cancer Walk another other fund-raising activities to donate money to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to help fund breast cancer research.
Baseball and softball players also volunteered to ring bells for the Salvation Army during the holidays.
In July, PNC students made a return trip to Mississippi to help with Habitat for Humanity. What started out as a trip to help Habitat for Humanity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has resulted in a series of return trips to continue a commitment to help residents of Tutwiler , Mississippi build and rehabilitate homes there.
This is the 20th year that PNC tax and accounting students have offered free assistance to provide basic income tax return preparation to individuals with low to moderate incomes, individuals with disabilities and the elderly through the Internal Revenue Service's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
The Communication Department Small Group Discussion class traditionally assists not-for-profit agencies in developing and implementing various public relations and marketing strategies. Students have helped Michiana Resources; American Red Cross of LaPorte County; Mixed Up Mutts, LaPorte; Christian Community Action (CCA), Valparaiso and Michigan City Area Schools.
Students in Advanced Presentational Speaking have worked with students in the Michigan City Safe Harbor after-school program and students in Approaches to the Study of Interpersonal Communication participated in the "School Buddies" mentoring program.
“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 American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad.
PNC students are part of a national trend that sees college students volunteering at record levels T he Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) reported that two-thirds of students entering college believed it was very important to help others, the highest percentage in the last 25 years. In 2006, 2.8 million college students volunteered more than 297 million hours worth an estimated a total of $5.6 billion, according to HERI.
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