Fourth straight year: Miami named to President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll

Miami University has been named a leader in community service programs by being placed on the 2010 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. This is the fourth year Miami has made the honor roll, announced by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).

Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school's commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships, and measurable community outcomes as a result of the service.

In 2009-10, 13,800 Miami students engaged in forms of community service and 4,000 students participated in at least 20 hours of service per semester, said Monica Ways, director of Miami’s office for community engagement and service. Total service hours engaged in by Miami students were 414,000.

Some of the programs Miami students are most involved in include America Reads, Adopt a School, Hunger + Homelessness Awareness Week, Pledge a Meal, Young Authors (a literacy program that facilitates second through fifth graders writing and illustrating, in Spanish and English, their own books assisted by Miami tutors), senior citizens and disability services, Service Saturdays and various other one-time/ongoing service projects. The Urban Teaching Cohort and the Over-the-Rhine Residency Program were also highlighted in this year’s application.

The honor roll – a collaboration of the CNCS, the U. S. departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education – launched in 2006. Since then, according to Ways, Miami has also tied service to instruction with 30 Miami courses receiving the service learning designation and several other service learning courses being eligible for designation.

Service learning is a teaching method that utilizes student involvement in community service to meet instructional objectives of a course. Designated courses at Miami range from Spanish to computer science to art to teacher education and more.

The 2010 honor roll recognizes 641 colleges and universities out of 851 that applied. Miami is one of 7 public and 14 private universities in Ohio on the list.

In January, Miami was selected for the 2010 Community Engagement Classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Miami’s Oxford and Hamilton campuses are two of 115 institutions recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the voluntary classification.