R-MC Earns Place on National Honor Roll

3/13/13

Randolph-Macon College has been named to the 2013 Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The Honor Roll lauds the nation’s leading higher education institutions and their students, faculty and staff for their commitment to bettering their communities through service. This designation is the highest honor a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

“Randolph-Macon College has a long history of service and service-learning and believes strongly in preparing students to be active leaders in an ever-changing world,” says James McGhee, assistant dean of students. “We’re honored to receive this prestigious award and owe it to the students themselves. They’re the energy driving our commitment and they’re the ones who make our SERVE (Students Engaged in Responsible Volunteer Experiences) program a success.”

“SERVE creates co-curricular opportunities for students and explores the root causes and contexts of social needs through connections with the greater community,” says Jayme Watkins, coordinator of co-curricular programs in the Office of Student Life.

As participants in SERVE, students collectively amassed in 2012 more than 13,000 service hours. Students in Fraternity and Sorority Life contributed more than 5,000 hours of collective service to the community, collected 550 pounds of canned food, donated 35 school-supply baskets, and gave $9,388.74 to various organizations. In addition, $30,000 was raised and donated to the American Cancer Society from the annual Relay for Life, and R-MC faculty developed and planned more than 14 service-learning courses.

“Congratulations to Randolph-Macon College for its commitment to service, both in and out of the classroom,” says Wendy Spencer, CEO of 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.