Feb. 26, 2008

By Darla Martin Tucker and Larry Becker

La Sierra University garnered national acclaim recently for its local and international service activities, outreach efforts that are a manifestation of its global mission to serve.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal volunteer service organization, announced Feb. 11 La Sierra’s inclusion on the Honor Roll with Distinction for the 2007 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. It is the second annual awards event for the national program recognizing colleges and universities for innovative and effective service to others.

The Honor Roll acknowledged institutions around the country for their service work during the 2006-2007 school year. The ‘Honor Roll with Distinction’ recognizes top tier schools based on 14 selection factors including percentages of students engaged in community work and in academic service-learning, a heavy component of the award program. Six schools received presidential awards.

The Corporation for National and Community Service oversees Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America volunteer programs. The Honor Roll is sponsored by the corporation; the U.S. Department of Education; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; USA Freedom Corps; Campus Compact; and the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation.

La Sierra’s Office of Service-Learning submitted the application for the Honor Roll award. “This is a recognition of the commitment that students, faculty and the university have made and it can only happen through the wonderful partnerships that the university has established with the community,” said Adeny Schmidt, service-learning director and a psychology professor.

The 86-year-old university has pursued its humanitarian objectives with national and international mission trips, economic empowerment projects through Students In Free Enterprise and community volunteerism. Its broad, academic service-learning program integrates community service with course curriculum.

La Sierra’s students carried out an estimated 44,478 total hours of service to benefit others during the 2006-07 academic year.

An estimated 790 La Sierra students participated in academic service-learning courses, providing about 10,000 hours of assistance to various organizations. Approximately 156 additional students performed other sorts of outreach work.

Service projects last year ranged from financial management programs for seniors, business startup help for low-income individuals, homework help for at-risk children to senior exercise programs.

Additionally, 55 La Sierra students worked 1,925 hours on Hurricane Katrina relief, gutting low-income apartments and homes in Waveland, Miss. and New Orleans among other tasks. Their work carried a value of more than $25,000.

Other students built homes in Tecate, Mexico and a worship center in Kenya.

Academic service-learning marries service at community organizations, and some mission trips, with psychology, anatomy, religion and other classes.

Faculty members choose courses and determine appropriate types of service that could build on the learning experience. Students journal their observations and experiences, create presentations, write papers and perform other assignments.

The service-learning office helps faculty develop courses, connects them with appropriate organizations, handles student paperwork and offers transportation to service sites.

In one instance, students in gross human anatomy provided assistance at the Inland Empire Adult Day Health Care Center in Corona. While helping seniors exercise, they observed their motions, noting muscular and skeletal changes that prevent movement.

“La Sierra’s students helped our elderly participants feel that they are still worth something,” center Director Barbara Porter said. “At the same time, the students gained a respect for the dignity of growing older. It was a real win-win situation.”

All La Sierra freshmen and transferring sophomores are required to complete three academic service-learning courses before graduation. Transferring juniors must complete two courses and incoming seniors must finish one community service course.

La Sierra established the Office of Service-Learning in 2003. During the 2002-03 school year, 12 faculty linked nine academic courses and 11 course sections with four community partners and seven sites.

By the 2006-07 school year, the program ramped up to 33 faculty offering 32 courses and 48 course sections involving service for 32 community partners and 51 sites.

Students in Schmidt’s psychology class called “The Exceptional Child” serve twice a week helping special education teachers in the Alvord Unified School District. “The learning is miles better for the class than if we were just talking about it,” Schmidt said.

La Sierra business graduate student, John Razzouk, helped Riverside County Public Health workers with community events to fulfill requirements for a community involvement colloquium during his sophomore year. The events aimed at influencing children and youth to include more fruits and vegetables in their diets.

The following year, as part of a service-learning course, Razzouk joined a team of students documenting the recycling activities of various university departments and their perceptions of recycling.

They met with department and administrative leaders, produced a report with recommendations and ultimately contributed to the unification of disparate recycling activities around campus into a cohesive program.

 “That experience validated everything that I had been told about La Sierra University; that the faculty, staff, and administration empowered students with the knowledge, skill, ability and opportunity to change the world around them,” said Razzouk, who is also assistant director of the service-learning office.

He served as last year’s president of La Sierra’s Students In Free Enterprise team. The group won the SIFE World Cup in New York City last October for their economic empowerment projects around the globe.

La Sierra’s various service activities provide students opportunities to understand the purpose of their studies, Razzouk said.

“Students want to know what the point is,” he said.

Community service also pulls many students out of their protected worlds and teaches them how to deal with varieties of people and circumstances.

“It’s a real boost when they graduate and go out into their careers having interacted with people who are different from each other,” Razzouk said.

PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)