KU makes president’s Community Service Honor Roll

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas was named to the 2014 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the eighth consecutive year.

The Honor Roll’s Presidential Award is the highest federal recognition an institution can receive for its commitment to community, service-learning and civic engagement.

KU contributed 980,000 service hours to the community during the 2012-2013 academic year, as recognized by the 2014 honor roll. 74,000 of those hours were undertaken through service learning classes. Ninety-eight percent were contributed locally or regionally.

In addition to the service hours contributed, three projects were showcased in the award application: The Kansas Impact Project, Mentors in the Lives of Kids and the Jayhawk Health Initiative. Each of these projects exemplifies community engagement at the university and benefits both students and the community.

The Kansas Impact Project partnered first-year MBA students with community-based agencies to collaborate on management solutions to community-defined challenges.

“(Students) indicated in their exit interviews that the Kansas Impact Program was a highlight of the MBA program,” said Catherine Shenoy, director of KU MBA Programs.

Mentors in the Lives of Kids, a program of the student-run KU Center for Community Outreach, connected 300 KU student volunteers with the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence for 1,600 hours of after-school mentoring and celebrations with children.

Through the Jayhawk Health Initiative, KU undergraduate students volunteered as a summer medical brigade to Panama, administering medical services to three hundred and thirty individuals.

Rachel Paxton, co-director of Mentors in the Lives of Kids, noted that students who take the time and initiative to volunteer “are demonstrating the ability to look beyond themselves and see a need and make a difference in others' lives.”

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service since 2006, highlights the role colleges and universities play in solving community challenges.

“Service and higher education go hand in hand,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

“By recognizing the institutions who are leading the way to achieve meaningful, measurable results for the communities they serve, we also highlight the vital role all colleges and universities play in addressing community challenges and placing more students on a lifelong path of civic engagement.”