CGCC named to national community service honor roll seventh year in a row

Chandler-Gilbert Community College was named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll on March 4. This is the seventh consecutive year the college has received this designation, which is the highest honor a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement. 

"Thanks to our dedicated faculty and service-learning staff, our service-learning program has continued to build year after year with an increasing number of students contributing their time and talents to our community service agencies, building relationships between the two and a strengthening of our community overall,” said CGCC President Linda Lujan. “It’s an honor to receive national recognition for this work.” 

Since 1992, CGCC has sustained and expanded an academic service-learning program, which now engages more than 3,200 students each year, contributing more than 36,290 hours of service to approximately 200 community-based agencies and schools. One example is Into the Streets where students, faculty and staff serve at one of 20 local agencies such as food banks, youth-serving agencies, schools, and senior centers over a two-day period. View a recent television segment highlighting the program.

Majors such as Teacher and Early Childhood Education require service-learning as a cornerstone instructional strategy. Each semester, 400 students serve 20-30 hours each in approximately 100 local K-12 public, private and charter classrooms engaging students individually and in small groups. CGCC also hosts a number of events on campus for students such as Diversity Day.

“Congratulations to CGCC, its faculty and students for its commitment to service, both in and out of the classroom,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). “Through its work, institutions of higher education are helping improve their local communities and create a new generation of leaders by challenging students to go beyond the traditional college experience and solve local challenges.”

Inspired by the thousands of college students who traveled across the country to support relief efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, CNCS has administered the award since 2006 and manages the program in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the American Council on Education and Campus Compact.