STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., March 15 — The Corporation for National and Community Service announced today that Wagner College had been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the sixth year in a row.
“It is very gratifying that the White House has, once again, recognized the hundreds of hours of service that Wagner College students, faculty and staff are investing each year in communities like Staten Island’s Port Richmond as part of our signature curriculum, the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts,” said Wagner College President Richard Guarasci. “Civic engagement is the very core of what we do at Wagner College, and recognition like this validates that commitment.”
Last year, an estimated 1,700 Wagner College students engaged in at least 20 hours of community service per term, each; collectively, the college logged about 80,000 hours of community service from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011.
Since 2008, much of that energy has been focused on Port Richmond, a community on Staten Island’s North Shore that has become a magnet for American immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Identified by New York State as an “economically distressed community, with the borough’s second-lowest median household income, the second-highest poverty rate, and the highest concentration of older housing in the borough,” Port Richmond has seen a more than 400 percent increase in the Mexican immigrant population, creating a complex set of health care, education, housing and employment needs.
Wagner College spearheaded the Port Richmond Partnership, leading to the development of significant, sustainable relationships between eight Wagner academic departments and 18 community institutions in Port Richmond. The college’s hope is to channel the thousands of service hours invested by its faculty and students in such a way as to do permanent, measurable good in Port Richmond.
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which has administered the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll since its creation in 2006, admitted a total of 642 colleges and universities to this year’s Honor Roll for their impact on issues from literacy and neighborhood revitalization to supporting at-risk youth. For a full list of institutions represented on the Honor Roll and descriptions of their service, visit the Honor Roll website.
White House honors Wagner’s community service for 6th year in a row
March 16, 2012
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