Bunker Hill Community College On Presidential Honor Roll for Community Service
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Boston’s Bunker Hill Community College today with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities. A total of 22 Massachusetts colleges and universities were recognized as Honor Roll members, including Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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 were chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses.
BHCC was recognized for the following programs: BHCC Art Mobile – no-cost, hands-on art activities were offered to senior citizens in the Greater Boston area; ESL (English as a Second Language) Goes Green – faculty from the ESL and Computer Information Technology Departments engaged students in a number of “green” activities, such as researching and writing essays on environmental issues to hand out at an Energy Fair organized at BHCC near the end of the spring semester; Little Brothers Friends of Elderly Visitations – under the supervision of faculty, members of BHCC’s Student Volunteer Club, SHOCWAVES (Students Helping Our Communities with Active Volunteer Experiences and Service) spent their Thanksgiving and Easter Holidays delivering food to senior citizens; Great American Smokeout – psychology students studied and related smoking behavior to the principles of conditioning, and then held a number of activities, including a speaker event and handing out informational brochures they had produced; Walk for Hunger –in early May, students, faculty and staff participated for the second year in Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger, raising over $1200.
The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service – a federal agency that fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering – in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is presented during the annual conference of the American Council on Education.
“In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever. College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges,” said Stephen Goldsmith, vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the Honor Roll. “We salute Bunker Hill Community College for making community service a campus priority, and thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America through service to others.”
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About Bunker Hill Community College
Celebrating 50 years of excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).