For the fourth consecutive year, Howard Payne University has been named to the President’s Higher Education 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. The Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual Honor Roll award, recognized more than 700 colleges and universities for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice.
Dr. Brent Marsh, assistant vice president for student life and dean of students at HPU, reports that Howard Payne students participated in a recorded 15,524 hours of community service for the 2008-09 academic school year. A total of 471 HPU students were involved in some form of service, representing more than one-third of the student population.Opportunities for service at HPU are found in both curricular and co-curricular settings. Academic internships are offered in various disciplines with the purpose of extending learning beyond the classroom. Students interned for local Brownwood agencies including Brownwood Regional Medical Center, Child Protective Services, Songbird Lodge Nursing Home, Family Services Center and the Ron Jackson Juvenile Correctional Complex.
Additionally, co-curricular service opportunities include a variety of programs including mission trips, mentoring, Serving With A Right Motive (SWARM) day and working with community programs such as Head Start and the Boys & Girls Club.
“Congratulations to Howard Payne University and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities,” said Patrick Corvington , CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. “Our nation’s students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face. They have achieved impactful results and demonstrated the value of putting knowledge into practice to help renew America through service.”
Honorees for the community service award were chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovativeness 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.
Overall, the corporation honored six schools with Presidential Awards. In addition, 115 were named as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 621 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 742 schools were recognized, 32 of which are located in Texas. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
