FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Carrie Butler, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, 412-291-6340
February 9, 2009
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Named to Presidential Honor Roll
For Community Service
The Corporation for National and Community Service honored The Art Institute of Pittsburgh today with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.
“Community service has been an important element of our mission for as long as we can remember,” said George L. Pry, President of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. “Connecting students with organizations who can benefit from our time and talent makes sense. We are proud of this recognition and even more proud of the compelling partnerships our students and faculty create in the region.”
Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of selection factors including 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.
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh community service initiatives in 2008 existed through academic projects, volunteerism and through the funding of the Federal Work Study program. The college offers a variety of special topics classes as part of several of bachelor’s degree program designed specifically to support connecting students with community clients under experienced faculty advisement. One such example is an honor’s level course in the Graphic Design curriculum called Design Studio overseen by faculty member Shawn O’Mara. In the class, students meet with a pre-arranged community client on the first day of class and spend 11 weeks working collaboratively with their client to complete a project or goal. Through the Design Studio alone, The Art Institute has donated an estimated 14,080 hours of student and faculty time to serve more than 320 community projects since it began in 2001.
Other organizations to benefit in 2008 included: The Senator John Heinz Regional History Center, The Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Pittsburgh 250 Commission, The Three Rivers Arts Festival, The National Kidney Foundation, The Pittsburgh Irish Festival, Point Park University, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Carnegie Historical Society, The Parental Stress Center and many dozen more.
“In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever. College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges,” said Stephen Goldsmith, vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the Honor Roll. “We salute The Art Institute of Pittsburgh for making community service a campus priority, and thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America through service to others.”
Overall, the Corporation honored six schools with Presidential Awards. In addition, 83 were named as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 546 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 635 schools were recognized. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll <http://www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll> .
The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is presented during the annual conference of the American Council on Education.
“I offer heartfelt congratulations to those institutions named to the 2008 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. College and university students across the country are making a difference in the lives of others every day – as are the institutions that encourage their students to serve others,” said American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad.
Recent studies have underlined the importance of service-learning and volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 million college students gave more than 297 million hours of volunteer service, according to the Corporation’s Volunteering in America 2007 study. Expanding campus incentives for service is part of a larger initiative to spur higher levels of volunteering by America’s college students. The Corporation is working with a coalition of federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organizations to achieve this goal.
The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. The Corporation administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, a program that supports service-learning in schools, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations. For more information, go to www.nationalservice.gov.