STUDENT SERVICE EARNS STONEHILL PRESIDENTIAL AWARD
College Honored for Distinguished Community Service

The Corporation for National and Community Service named Stonehill to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth. 

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.

The College is one of only five institutions of higher education in Massachusetts that received this honor with distinction.   

Stonehill's Service
Each year, close to 1,400 Stonehill students participate in community service outreach. And, last year, the College estimates that our students provided more than 51,000 hours of service to numerous nonprofit and civic groups.

The Into the Streets (ITS) community service program is the largest student organization on campus, with more than 350 students volunteering each academic year.

Under this umbrella organization, Stonehill students may offer assistance to a variety of local social service and nonprofit agencies, such as the Old Colony YMCA Family Life Center, My Brother’s Keeper, and the David Jon Louison Family Care Center. 

“College students like those at Stonehill are tackling the toughest problems in America, demonstrating their compassion, commitment, and creativity in by serving as mentors, tutors, health workers, and even engineers,” said David Eisner, chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service. “They represent a renewed spirit of civic engagement fostered by outstanding leadership on caring campuses.”

Stonehill's Mission
“Our mission statement says that we educate the whole person so that each graduate thinks, acts, and leads with courage toward creating a more just and compassionate world,” notes Nuala Boyle, director of community service and volunteerism.

"Our passion for service permeates every aspect of Stonehill, from Campus Ministry, to Athletics, to the residence halls, to the classroom. I am proud to work at an institution that values serving others to such a high degree,” adds Boyle.

“Stonehill’s mission is rooted in the spirit and educational philosophy of Fr. Basil Moreau, the recently beatified founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Moreau’s belief that students should be formed into justice is a core value of a Stonehill education,” explains Fr. Thomas P. Looney, vice president for Mission.

About the Community Service Honor Roll
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.

About the President's Honor Roll
The President’s 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 here. 

“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.”

About the Corporation for National and Community Service
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, visit here.

Stonehill College, a Catholic institution of higher learning founded by the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Easton, Mass., is a community of scholarship and faith, anchored by a belief in the inherent dignity of each person. Through its curriculum of liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs, Stonehill provides an education of the highest caliber that fosters critical thinking, free inquiry, and the interchange of ideas. Stonehill educates the whole person so that each graduate thinks, acts, and leads with courage toward creating a more just and compassionate world.

02/13/08