The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Bentley University with a place on 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. Bentley is among 700 colleges and universities to be honored. This is the fourth consecutive year that Bentley has been recognized for initiatives of the Bentley Service-Learning Center (BSLC), which promotes academic learning through service.
“Once again the Presidential Honor Roll acknowledges Bentley’s ongoing contribution to the wider community through the service learning experiences of our students,” says BSLC director, Dr. Franklyn P. Salimbene, who notes that service-learning projects reinforce the classroom experience. “It's in service to others that Bentley students learn the true meaning of citizenship.”
This past year, 1,000 Bentley students put their business skills to work volunteering at local organizations. Approximately 65 nonprofit organizations, government offices and schools in Waltham and surrounding communities are partnered with the Bentley Service-Learning Center (BSLC), with thousands of local residents benefitting from the volunteer work of Bentley students.
For its on-going efforts, the BSLC has also been recognized many times by U.S. News & World Report’s rankings of America’s Best Colleges as one of the best service-learning programs in the nation. Bentley University was also featured in Princeton Review’s book Colleges with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement (Random House/ Princeton Review Books, 2005). The book highlights schools that foster social responsibility and public service.
For the 2009 Presidential Honor Roll, two Bentley service-learning programs were highlighted:
• 2+2=5 The Power of Teamwork: Created by Bentley service-learning students, the program teaches teamwork, collaboration, and interpersonal skills to fourth and fifth grade students in Waltham, Massachusetts schools. In 2008-2009, the program was conducted at the Stanley, Plympton, Fitzgerald, and MacArthur Elementary Schools. Underscoring the power of teamwork, the reference, "2+2=5," demonstrates that when teamwork is employed, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Acting as facilitators and mentors, Bentley students collaborate with teachers to prepare and implement activities related to skills such as teamwork, verbal and non-verbal communication, leadership, problem solving, trust, and conflict resolution. In addition to teaching children, Bentley students are able to draw their own lessons from these exercises as they relate to classes in business management and the role of teamwork in modern day business enterprise.
• Bentley Low Income Tax Clinic (BLITC): With funding from the Internal Revenue Service, the Bentley Low Income Tax Clinic has been offered for since 2000. Students assist low income individuals in eastern Massachusetts with tax issues through tax education workshops in the community and tax controversy resolution for disputes between low income individuals and the IRS. Academically, BLITC functions as a 3-credit elective graduate course with an embedded service-learning component. The program is structured to provide outreach, representation, and advocacy services in the community by utilizing the skills of specially educated students. Eligible students are those pursuing a master’s degree in taxation, financial planning or accountancy, and who have completed two prerequisite tax courses and fulfilled an experience requirement.
“Congratulations to Bentley 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.”
Among the programs recognized by previous Presidential Honor Roll awards is the Mmofra Trom Project, a long-term economic development partnership between Bentley and the Mmofra Trom Center near the village of Trom in Ghana, West Africa. The program began in 2006 with the course, Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and Economic Development. Twelve Bentley students traveled to Ghana to visit to the Mmofra Trom Center, an NGO that provides access to education, health care, job-skills training, and other opportunities for children and their extended families. The project later grew into a group of courses with a systems approach to studying economic development. Courses cross academic disciplines to cover topics such as education, employment, microenterprise, health care, and law-politics; all involve travel to Ghana.
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. Click here for a full list of Honor Roll recipients.
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 for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more 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.