Elizabethtown College Receives National Recognition for Community Service

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President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll Logo

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (03/02/2010)(readMedia)-- Elizabethtown College has been named to the 2009 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 the fourth consecutive year the College, known for its historic commitment to "Educate for Service," has received the honor.

According to Elizabethtown College President Theodore E. Long, this recognition is an indication of the College's thriving culture of service. "Elizabethtown's mission is centered on delivering an education for service in the largest sense, and this recognition confirms once more that this College is actively engaged in building a better community around us," says Long. "We are honored to be recognized in this way."

Every year, several hundred Elizabethtown students give back to their community through diverse programs offered by campus organizations and guided by faculty and staff mentors or student leaders. The College participates both in large immersion events, like Into the Streets and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, and individual volunteer efforts, like community service work study, academic placements and volunteering with nonprofit agencies. In addition, the College involves students in urban service-learning activities in the richly diverse neighboring communities of Lancaster and Harrisburg.

The Office of Civic Engagement-home to the College's AmeriCorps Scholars in Service to Pennsylvania Program and mentoring partnerships with Milton Hershey School and the Harrisburg and Elizabethtown school districts-is active in nurturing the spirit of civic engagement on campus. According to the office's director, Nancy Fritz Valkenburg '71, Elizabethtown students are making a difference as they apply their newly acquired knowledge in service of mankind. "Our civic engagement programs are strengthening and expanding locally, nationally and internationally," she says. "Every year, students participate in service trips over breaks, with groups this year traveling to Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles and Louisiana. Internationally, our campus community currently is raising funds and collecting supplies for victims in Haiti and our students routinely participate in service-learning experience in countries like Mexico, Ireland, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Africa."

This year, the Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual Honor Roll award, recognized more than 700 colleges and universities for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice. On campuses across the country, thousands of students joined their faculty in developing innovative programs and projects to meet local needs using the skills gained in their classrooms.

Corporation for National and Community Service Chief Executive Officer Patrick Corvington notes that college and university students share an important role in this nation's success. "Congratulations to Elizabethtown College and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities," says Corvington. "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. 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.

Elizabethtown College, in southeastern Pennsylvania, is a private coed college with degrees in liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education. The hallmarks of an Elizabethtown education are academic rigor, high expectations and intellectual curiosity. Our faculty members are teacher-scholars, pursuing their academic areas of expertise while sharing that expertise with students.

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. 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.

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Media Contact:

Lori H. Burke

Director of Communications

Elizabethtown College

burkel@etown.edu

717-361-1268 (o)

717-808-7318 (c)