IIT Receives National Recognition for Community Service, Named to President’s Honor Roll
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) has been named to the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual Honor Roll award, recognized more than 700 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 to develop innovative programs and projects to meet local needs using the skills gained in their classrooms. Business students served as consultants to budget-strapped nonprofits and businesses, law students volunteered at legal clinics, and dozens of others organized anti-hunger campaigns.
“Congratulations to Illinois Institute of Technology and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities,” said Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. “Our nation’s students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face. They have achieved impactful results and demonstrated the value of putting knowledge into practice to help renew America through service.”
Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors including the scope and innovation 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.
“We are proud to be included in the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll,” said IIT President John Anderson. “Our students, faculty, and staff place great value in community service as part of the educational experience at IIT and we continuously work to develop new ways to offer our support to the city of Chicago and beyond.”
The IIT community displays its commitment to volunteering and service-learning through initiatives such as the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's Center for Access to Justice and Technology, Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, and pro-bono clinics, student professional organizations, and the service learning program at IIT. Students involved in service learning volunteer for regular service projects near campus and throughout the Chicago area, including “The Big Event,” the largest, student-run day of service, which in 2009 brought together more than 200 IIT students, faculty, and staff to complete service projects for Chicago churches, parks, community agencies, and schools. Service activities at IIT have a global reach, with student chapters of Engineers Without Borders and Haiti Outreach designing and implementing clean water and solar power systems in economically distressed areas.
The Corporation for National and Community Service oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education. The Corporation is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs, and leads President Obama's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit www.nationalservice.gov.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.
