Coe Named President's Community Service Honour Roll

Coe College has been named to the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The award represents the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteerism, service-learning and community engagement.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual honor roll award, recognizes colleges and universities for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice. On campuses across the country, thousands of students joined their faculty and staff to develop innovative programs and projects to meet local needs using the skills gained in their classrooms.

During the 2010-11 school year at Coe, 787 students participated in community service, and 289 gave more than 20 hours of service each semester. All totaled, Coe students provided more than 18,000 hours of service to the community.

The Coe programs that represented the highest levels of volunteerism included Six Days of Service and Greek community service philanthropy projects. All totaled, 318 Coe students involved in Greek life volunteered more than 7,427 hours of service and raised over $38,000 for charity.

The efforts were organized by Director of Service-Learning and Campus Engagement Kayla Lyftogt, in conjunction with AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers Wendy Steffen and Noël Rozum.

“Once again this year, we are honored to receive this national award in recognition of the work our students have done to support the Cedar Rapids community,” said Lyftogt. “We are excited about the momentum that this award gives our program and plan to deepen our community involvement in the year to come.”

Coe is a participant in the Iowa Campus Compact and other state volunteerism programs, and hosts a site for the AmeriCorps VISTA program. In the past few years, the college has had 37 students participate in the AmeriCorps Education Award Program and AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associate Program, one AmeriCorps recruiter, and seven full-time VISTA members. Together, these individuals have contributed more than 30,000 hours of service to the college and community, which equates to about $515,000 worth of service.

Coe is one of 642 colleges and universities named to this year’s honor roll. This is the third time Coe has received the award.

University Press Release here.