UC Davis 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.

During the 2008-09 academic year, more than 7,000 UC Davis students contributed more than 430,000 hours of community service through internships, the campus’s Community Service Resource Center, service-learning classroom-based opportunities and student clubs.

Business students served as consultants to budget-strapped nonprofits and businesses, law students volunteered at legal clinics, medical students worked at health clinics, veterinary students fostered orphaned animals, and countless undergraduates volunteered in schools and community organizations.

“We are tremendously proud of our students, and of the impact of their volunteerism on issues ranging from education and hunger to community development and sustainability,” said Cynthia Goldberg, Internship and Career Center program coordinator for the UC Davis Community Service Resource Center.

‘Knowledge into practice’

“Congratulations to UC Davis 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, which administers the annual award.

“Our nation’s students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face.”

College students make a significant contribution to the volunteer sector; in 2009, 3.16 million students performed more than 300 million hours of service, according to the corporation.

The Corporation for National and Community Service 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.

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.

— Dateline staff