The University of Alabama has been named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, a federal honor awarded to universities that have shown a commitment to volunteering and civic engagement.
This is the Capstone’s fifth year to be named to the Honor Roll and the second to be to the Honor Roll with Distinction, according to Heather Christensen, research project coordinator at the UA Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility.
The awards process begins with an application process in which universities are asked to estimate the community service participation of students.
“The application asks universities to estimate the number of students they have involved in community service, the number of students involved in service-learning projects, the number of students serving more than 20 hours, and the total number of service hours completed by students during an academic year,” Christensen said.
In addition to service hours, Christensen and the CESR highlighted three specific UA service projects in the application.
“We chose to highlight the Beat Auburn Beat Hunger Food Fight, which resulted in an estimated 17,400 meals; the Tuscaloosa’s One Place After-school Mentoring Program; and Impact Alabama, in which students prepared 2,900 tax returns, tutored 85 Pre-AP students and conducted vision screenings for 1,730 children,” Christensen said.
Wahnee Sherman, director of Community Service Center, said she believes these established service projects and the University’s service-learning courses create an atmosphere to facilitate students who want to get involved.
“Our institution has a commitment to service,” Sherman said. “Students are given opportunities to serve in their classes, in their organizations, and as individuals. All a student has to have is a desire to want to get involved with the community, and we work to help find opportunities for them to give back in meaningful ways.”
In addition to projects and opportunities offered by campus organizations and faculty, UA students show individual initiative when it comes to community service.
One such student, junior Colby Leopard, started a literacy program called READ Alabama at Tuscaloosa-area middle schools.
Recently awarded the Center for Community-Based Partnership’s Excellence in Community Engagement Award, the program pairs university students with underperforming middle school students in a mentoring/reading program.
According to Leopard, READ became a part of the Civic Engagement branch of the Honors College Assembly and, last semester, had about 150 students volunteering an hour of their time each week to mentor and read with local middle school students.
“I believe I wanted to help because even though the problems exist, it is more important to be the solution,” said Leopard. “I may not be from Tuscaloosa or Alabama, but it is my home and I wanted to the show the city that I do care and that the University cares by being an active part of the community.”
Christensen said she believes Leopard is not alone in his sentiments.
“Year after year, UA students continue to show a passion for helping others. They actively seek out ways to give back to the community,” Christensen said.
“In making UA our home, we become a part of the community of Tuscaloosa,” Leopard said. “That means we get to go to football games and walk The Strip, but it also means we accept the problems of illiteracy, homelessness, and poverty as our own problems. It is our job as members of the community to face this head on and do something about it.”
According to Sherman, the University’s atmosphere of community engagement and volunteering not only benefits the Tuscaloosa area, but also students themselves.
“[Students] also gain a greater understanding of others and about themselves,” Sherman said. “We hope that by engaging in meaningful service while they are part of their higher education institutions, they will make service a habit as they graduate and become productive members of society.”
