Blogs:

Across our country, graduates in all colleges will be honored this spring. The CNCS or Corporation for National and Community Service recognized Ashford University’s contribution towards supporting civic engagement, service learning and volunteering and called it the leader among the higher education institutions.

For playing a leading role in effectively engaging its students, this university was admitted to the honor roll of 2010 President’s higher education community service. The institution is recognized for playing a major role in engaging not only its students in this initiative but also its staffs and faculty. They have been actively providing meaningful services and have achieved measurable goals.

Since the year 2006, the honor roll is being administered by the CNCS. Universities and colleges that have made an impact on supporting youths who are at risk, revitalizing neighborhood and literacy are a part of CNCS. There are 641 universities in total who are a part of CNCS.
Out of this, six of them received the Presidential award selected from a shortlisted 11 finalists from the 114 who received honor roll distinction. This is from a total of 511 who were named to the honor roll.

Ashford University has been named to the CNCS honor roll for the fourth time in a row. CNCS executive director Patrick A. Corvington congratulated the university and its students for their commitment to the purpose and sincere dedication towards local community development.

The effort of all honor roll awardees was commended for encouraging students to take an active role in facing national challenges through social service and for embracing civic missions for the overall benefit of the society.

A community service project must be completed every semester by organizations that are funded by Student Government Association of the Ashford University. There are 17 athletic teams in total at the university that are involved in community service projects. Most of Ashford students’ select community service as their work study jobs being a part of the federal Work Study Program.

The honor roll 2010 saw applications from 851 institutions. This is nine percent above last year which indicates that universities and colleges are now showing greater interest. They take efforts to make a difference to the community by engaging students.

Many innovative projects designed to address the local needs across the country see the participation of millions of college students. They use knowledge and skills acquired in classrooms to service communities.

It is highly encouraging to see that over 300 million hours of community service was put in by a total of 3.2 million committed and dedicated students in our country. Value of service provided by the students is an estimated $6.4 billion.

Honor roll is overseen by the CNCS in association with the Department of Education and Housing and Urban Development, American Council on Education and Campus Compact. A list of factors is taken into account as they select the honorees that include service project innovation and scope.

Other factors taken into consideration include the extent of incorporation of service learning in the curriculum and the commitment level of the school to long term community-campus partnerships.