ALYSA PERRERAS | staff writer
For the second year in a row APU was acknowledged for its community-based activities
As each woman left the tea, they were given a Gerber daisy and a poem. The poem was centered on the idea of fi nding one’s image in the Lord. The last line of the poem reads, “I want her to be conformed to My image. This high goal I have set for her. Because I love her.”
Azusa Pacific was recognized by Learn and Serve America and was awarded a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The award is given to colleges and universities for outstanding work in both community service and service-learning programs.
The Honor Roll was launched in 2006 by Learn and Serve America to acknowledge schools that display innovation and effectiveness in services they provide within their respective communities. APU was 1 of 127 schools on the General Honor Roll with Distinction for the 2007 school year.
“Since it is only a very select group that received the award with distinction it actually links us up with other top schools in the nation, which for the most part are very large and very well endowed,” Director of the Center of Academic Service-Learning and Research Judy Hutchinson said.
Learn and Serve America is a program that provides direct and indirect support to volunteer and service-learning programs throughout America to encourage students to make meaningful contributions to their communities while building their academic and civic skills.
The Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a college can receive in regards to a commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. In evaluating applicants for the award Learn and Serve America takes into consideration a combination of factors. The percentage of students involved in such programs, the number of hours students commit to volunteering and the use of service-learning within the college or universities curriculum to name a few.
“This award puts us as a Christian university right in the center of the service-learning world in terms of influence,” Hutchinson said.
The award is given in three levels; the Honor Roll, ‘With Distinction’ and the Presidential Award. The Presidential Award, the highest of the three, is given to the top three applicants under each difference category.
APU submitted five different programs for Learn and Serve America to consider.
Cerritos Kidz, a tutoring and mentoring program; Azusa Read, a Federal Work Study-funded program that offers assistance to 1st through 5th grades; and College Headed and Mighty Proud (C.H.A.M.P.), a program offering a foretaste of college life to fourth graders were the community based programs submitted.
“We were founded over a hundred years ago as a mission’s school and it is something that is in our blood. When you go here [community service] is something you know are agreeing to do and it is one of our cornerstones. To live by that means you live life a different way and hopeful helping people becomes a main stream thing,” Director of Research and Programs in the office of ministry and service Kristin Ritzau said.
Mexico Outreach and Focus International, the APU missions program that sends students, faculty and alumni to more than 20 locations nationally and worldwide, were also submitted for consideration.
“I think at doing missions gives us an opportunity to live out our faith and the missions trips are generally good for the students because it broadens our worldview and understanding of the global church,” junior political science major Sarah Gordon said. Gordon will be going to Ukraine this summer for five week with Focus International.
The college and universities honored by Learn and Serve America receive recognition at a national awards ceremony, national and local media attention and are listed on the President’s Honor Roll website.
“To receive recognition like this legitimizes our program and it encouraging to me to see that people outside a Christian world-view see that we really are helping people,” Gordon said.
The Honor Roll program is part of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and is sponsored by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, the USA Freedom Corps and the U.S. Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development.
