The Corporation for National and Community Service honored California State University, Fresno, today (Feb. 11) at the American Council on Education (ACE) annual conference with a Special Achievement Award as part of the second annual President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Fresno State was one of two minority-serving institutions that received the special achievement award in recognition of its commitment to service.

“We are honored to be selected for this Special Achievement Award,” said Fresno State President John D. Welty. “Fresno State has a long-standing commitment to community service. Our faculty, staff and students have answered the call to use their knowledge and skills to serve the needs of our community and this award is a tribute to their hard work.”
The Special Achievement Award was given in recognition of the Fresno State Mediator Mentors program, a university-public school partnership in which future teachers, counselors, social workers, and school psychologists support the development of conflict resolution skills in school children. In 2006-07, approximately 70 Fresno State students trained and mentored 300 youth peer mediators at 40 different elementary and middle schools students in the Fresno area.

“This award means so much to all the conflict managers in our school-university partnership,” said Dr. Pamela Lane-Garon, director of Mediator Mentors. “Whether a fourth-grader, seventh-grader or university student, we are offering opportunity to resolve everyday conflict in ways that allow disputants to maintain personal dignity, repair relationships and build skills.”

Other programs included in Fresno State’s Honor Roll nomination were Academic Service-Learning (127 classes with nearly 3,300 students providing almost 63,000 hours of service), the Fresno State MOSAIC program, Community Service Scholarship Program, American Humanics, Jumpstart Fresno, Fresno READS, Hoover Academic Mentoring program, music class and Teilman Education Center Project, Fresno State Teacher Recruitment Program and the Youth To College project.
Launched in 2006, the Honor Roll’s Presidential Award is the highest 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 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.

“Fresno State’s students are a sterling example of today’s college students, who are tackling the toughest problems in America, demonstrating their compassion, commitment, and creativity by serving as mentors, tutors, and undertaking numerous other activities,” said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation, who presented the award. “They represent a renewed spirit of civic engagement fostered by outstanding leadership on caring campuses.”

In congratulating the winners, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said, “Americans rely on our higher education system to prepare students for citizenship and the workforce. We look to institutions like these to provide leadership in partnering with local schools to shape the civic, democratic and economic future of our country.”

Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, N.C., also received a special achievement award as a minority-serving institution. Special achievement awards were also given to two community colleges, Lake Area Technical Institute, Watertown, S.D., and Raritan Valley Community College, Somerville, N.J. In addition, the Presidential Award for Service to Youth from Disadvantaged Circumstances was given to Chaminade University of Honolulu, Syracuse University, and the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif. The Presidential Award for General Community Service went to Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Honor Roll also recognized 127 colleges and universities as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 391 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 528 schools were recognized. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
ACE President David Ward noted how impressed he was with the commitment of all the award winners.

“There is no question that the universities and colleges who have made an effort to participate and win the Honor Roll award are themselves being rewarded today,” said Ward. “Earning this distinction is not easy. But now each of these schools will be able to wear this award like a badge of honor.”

The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USA Freedom Corps, and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. The Corporation administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, a program that supports service-learning in schools, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations. For more information, go to http://www.nationalservice.gov <http://www.nationalservice.gov/> .
Related link:

http://www.csufresno.edu/mediatormentors/