Kentucky Campus Compact Member Institutions Receive President’s Honor Roll Award for ServiceSchools Honored for Distinguished Community Service

February 11, 2008 (Highland Heights, KY) – Kentucky Campus Compact is pleased to announce that The Corporation for National and Community Service named five affiliated colleges/universities to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth. Those honored included Berea College and Western Kentucky University, both of which made the Honor Roll with Distinctions. Maysville Community and Technical College, Morehead State University, and Northern Kentucky University also received honors on the national honor roll.

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 innovativeness 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.

“College students are tackling the toughest problems in America, demonstrating their compassion, commitment, and creativity in by serving as mentors, tutors, health workers, and even engineers,” Eisner said. “They represent a renewed spirit of civic engagement fostered by outstanding leadership on caring campuses.”

The Honor Roll is jointly sponsored by the Corporation, through its Learn and Serve America program, and the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USA Freedom Corps, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.

In congratulating the winners, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said, “Americans rely on our higher education system to prepare students for citizenship and the workforce. We look to institutions like these to provide leadership in partnering with local schools to shape the civic, democratic and economic future of our country.”

Overall, the Community Service Honor Roll awarded six schools with Presidential Awards. In addition, four schools were recognized as Special Achievement Award winners, 127 as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 391 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 528 schools were recognized. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

“There is no question that the universities and colleges who have made an effort to participate and win the Honor Roll award are themselves being rewarded,” said American Council on Education President David Ward. “Earning this distinction is not easy. But now each of these schools will be able to wear this award like a badge of honor.”

The Honor Roll is jointly sponsored by the Corporation, through its Learn and Serve America program, and the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USA Freedom Corps, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. 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. For more information, go to http://www.nationalservice.gov.

Kentucky Campus Compact (KyCC) is a statewide coalition of Kentucky college and university presidents and their institutions, both public and private. Its vision is to help higher education strengthen the Commonwealth’s communities and improve the lives of Kentucky’s citizens. Founded in 2005, KyCC includes 27 member institutions and is hosted on the campus of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky
For additional information regarding Kentucky Campus Compact, visit http://kycompact.nku.edu or call 859-572-7614.
-- ## --

Kentucky Campus Compact Celebrates First

January 25, 2008 (Highland Heights, KY) – Kentucky Campus Compact is pleased to announce the graduation of its first members from its AmeriCorps*VISTA Program, Ms. Crystal Marshall of Maysville, Kentucky and Ms. Shirley Massie of Paducah, Kentucky. Both women have successfully completed a one-year, full-time term of national service as Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA).

Ms. Marshall served with Maysville Community & Technical College to develop infrastructure that supports campus-community collaboration in initiatives that address poverty-related issues. During her year of service, she identified existing community-based organizations that work with poverty-related issues, identified existing campus/community partnerships and the number of students involved, recruited and consulted with faculty to expand service-learning opportunities, and coordinated campus/community partnerships for service-learning and community service. She also created an on-line listing of service opportunities with applicable forms for potential volunteers, as well as an on-line county-by-county resource list to benefit the community at-large.

Ms. Massie served with West Kentucky Community & Technical College to develop partnerships to expand campus outreach initiatives addressing poverty-related issues that influence access to and completion of postsecondary education and training. During her year of service, she developed partnerships with community-based agencies to begin creation of a regional resource directory and the development of a 2-1-1 call center. She also initiated the development of a community volunteer group to pilot a mentoring program for low-income, primarily minority, students.

Kentucky Campus Compact (KyCC) is a statewide coalition of Kentucky college and university presidents and their institutions, both public and private. Its vision is to help higher education strengthen the Commonwealth’s communities and improve the lives of Kentucky’s citizens. Founded in 2005, KyCC includes 27 member institutions and is hosted on the campus of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. The organization was awarded an AmeriCorps*VISTA Program in 2006 by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a Federal agency.

Volunteers in Service to America was founded in 1965 to fight urban and rural poverty. Since then, more than 177,000 members have served full-time in non-profit organizations and public agencies for a year each. AmeriCorps*VISTA is part of AmeriCorps, a network of national and community service programs that each year supports the engagement of more than 70,000 Americans in intensive service to meet critical needs in education, the environment, public safety, homeland security, and other areas. AmeriCorps is administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
For more information about AmeriCorps*VISTA, visit www.nationalservice.gov. For additional information regarding Kentucky Campus Compact, visit http://kycompact.nku.edu or call 859-572-7725. ###