A publication for employees and friends of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
Vol. 15 Issue 3March 2009
 

Headlines

Service-Learning Program Named to National Honor Roll

Service Learning Project

A-B Tech students work in Asheville's edible gardens for winter for a Service-Learning project. The College's Service-Learning program was named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

The Corporation for National and Community Service has named A-B Tech to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for its Service-Learning program.

Service-Learning at A-B Tech led to more than 400 students performing thousands of hours of service in the community during the fall semester and for the past few years. Out of the 58 community colleges in North Carolina, A-B Tech has had the highest Service-Learning participation in 2006, 2007 and 2008, according to Lloyd Weinberg, Service-Learning coordinator for A-B Tech.

"The instructors incorporate Service-Learning into the curriculum and the students volunteer in the community in fields relevant to their studies," Weinberg said. "It makes what they are learning in the classroom come alive. It's a win-win for the community and the students."

A-B Tech started its Service-Learning program in 2005 when Weinberg volunteered to help teachers and students get involved while he was an adjunct instructor. Then President K. Ray Bailey saw the benefits of the program and worked with the members of the A-B Tech Foundation, including Foundation Executive Director Anita Metcalf and Grant Writer Tamma Moriarty, to secure a grant to create a permanent Service-Learning Center at the College. "My supervisor, Tom Dechant, (Dean of Learning Resources) and Gigi Derballa (Humanities/Fine Arts Chair) were extremely supportive in helping the program grow," Weinberg said.

A-B Tech graduate Mary Warren landed her dream job working with troubled teens through her Service-Learning experience. Warren volunteered at Eliada Home and found a good match through its program. She wrote a paper about her experiences, which was published in Explorations, the Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities for the State of North Carolina.

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 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.

Service-Learning Center

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Tech Talk is published by the Communications Office for employees and friends of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
Editor: Mona Cornwell, Writer: Martha Ball, Designers: Justin Page, April Sides
Send submissions to: Mona Cornwell, Director of Communications, at mcornwell@abtech.edu
Publication of the next issue is scheduled for April 1. Deadline for submissions is March 16.