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TIES Honored, Â鶹´«Ã½ Named to Presidential Community Service Honor Roll

San Diego, CA, June 3, 2010 -- The University of California, San Diego has been named to the 2009 President's Community Service Honor Roll with distinction for the contributions Â鶹´«Ã½’s students make to local, national and global communities on issues ranging from poverty to homelessness and environmental justice. This is the first year the university is on the Distinction List.
 
Â鶹´«Ã½ was recognized for two exemplary learning programs, and Thurgood Marshall College’s community service minor, and one outstanding community service program, Alternative Breaks.

The honor roll includes 115 colleges named to the distinction list and 621 schools listed as honor roll members.

“Giving back is part of Â鶹´«Ã½’s tradition of community service,” Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Penny Rue said. “Â鶹´«Ã½ is dedicated to learning, teaching and serving society through education, research and public service and it is an honor to be recognized nationally for our contributions.”

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.

Â鶹´«Ã½ has more than 500 student organizations, a total of 13,892 students engaged in a form of community service and in 2009, the university’s students completed 1,177,848 hours of community service. 

“Our service programs have grown significantly over the years,” said Emily Marx, director of Â鶹´«Ã½’s Center for Student Involvement. “We currently have 92 student organizations dedicated to service, which is more than any other category and the campus continues to expand our community service initiatives.”

The three programs recognized include:

Alternative Breaks – This organization sponsors service trips to Costa Rica, Peru, Tanzania, Russia, Appalachia, the Gulf Region and other areas where student aid is needed.  For example, in Russia, students mentored disadvantaged elementary students and made improvements to school facilities.

– This innovative service and academic program involves multi-disciplinary teams of students who use their combined technical and creative skills to design, build and deploy projects that solve technology-based problems for San Diego non-profit organizations.

Public Service Minor – The learning program sponsored by Thurgood Marshall College encourages students to understand the history and practices of public service and to work toward the development of civic skills. Those skills and practices are essential cornerstones of participation in a democratic society regardless of one's chosen profession.

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually recognizes institutions of higher education for their commitment to and achievement in community service.

President Obama has pledged to make service a central cause of his administration and wishes to commemorate the significant role that higher institutions and their students, staff and faculty play in helping to solve pressing social problems in the nation’s communities. 

 

Media Contacts

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Christine Clark
UCSD Communications
858-534-7618
ceclark@ucsd.edu