Eagle AthleticsCollege Named to Presidential Honor Roll for Community Service
Madison, Wis. (October 18, 2016) – The Corporation for National and Community Service has honored Edgewood College with a place on the 2015 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for commitment to service, civic engagement and service-learning. The College has received this honor for the past several years.
This year’s award specifically recognizes three areas of the life of the College: the COR 2 curriculum, Service Scholarship Programs which includes the Community Scholars, Bonner Leaders, and Servant Leadership Scholarship programs, and Athletics.
COR 2 Curriculum
Drawing from its foundation in the Dominican tradition, Edgewood College places study, reflection, and action for the common good at the center of a liberal arts education. The heart of the Edgewood College General Education program is the COR curriculum. During sophomore or junior year, students participate in a COR 2 course and choose an intensive experiential learning pathway, either service learning, study abroad, undergraduate research, field experience/internship, or civic leadership opportunities, which all provide meaningful community-based learning experiences.
Through COR 2 courses, students are required to complete at least 10 hours or more of community engagement, including with local community centers, community gardens, non-profits and schools. During the 2013-14 academic year approximately 467 students completed 6623 hours of community service through their COR 2 courses.
Service Scholarship Programs
The College sponsors several service scholarships - Community Scholars Program, Bonner Leaders Program, and Servant Leadership Scholarship Program - that promote student engagement in the community. Each program strives to develop informed, engaged, just and compassionate leaders through student involvement in community service. Students partner with community agencies over the course of a year or several years, often developing relationships that they maintain over their college careers and beyond. Depending on the program, students provide a minimum of 100 to 300 hours of service with their partner organizations per year.
Many non-profit organizations have seen increased capacity to serve their communities, due in part to the volunteer efforts of Edgewood College service scholarship students.
Participation has in many instances been the catalyst that has helped students determine a career direction, find their calling, and more fully commit themselves to a lifetime of service. Several have found permanent employment at the organizations with which they served after they graduated. In 2013-14, students participating in service scholarship programs at Edgewood College completed a total of 6,700 community service hours.
Athletics
Student-athletes at Edgewood College are exceptionally committed to the ideals of community service to create a more just and compassionate world. The Athletic Department seeks to develop in each student-athlete an understanding that the gifts they are blessed with to compete at a high level also give them a responsibility to make the world a better place. The Athletic Department requires each athletic team to participate in community service efforts, as well as sponsor separate, additional community service programs that involve many members of the entire College community.
Many teams utilize their skills and knowledge in the realm of nutrition, exercise and healthy living to partner with community groups. Multiple teams partner with local K-12 schools and community centers to provide youth with lessons on making healthy life choices, including lessons on tobacco education and promotion of exercise and nutritious eating. Other teams focus their service efforts on providing opportunities for children from low-income backgrounds to participate in athletics by offering free sports clinics and workshops. During the 2013-2014 academic year 239 student-athletes completed more than 3,000 hours of community service through team or departmental sponsored community service events.
About the Community Service Honor Roll
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. Honorees for the award are chosen based on a series of selection factors including 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.
About Edgewood College
Located in Madison, Wis., Edgewood College is a liberal arts Catholic college in the Dominican tradition. We serve approximately 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students at our Monroe Street and Deming Way campuses, and online. The College offers more than 40 academic and professional programs, including master’s degrees in business, education, and nursing, and doctoral degrees in educational leadership and nursing practice. For more information about Edgewood College, please visit www.edgewood.edu, or call Ed Taylor in Marketing & Strategic Communications at 608-663-2333.
###