Launched in 2006, The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll annually highlights the role that colleges and universities play in solving community problems and placing more students on a lifelong path of civic engagement. The Honor Roll recognizes institutions that achieve meaningful, measurable outcomes in the communities that they serve.
To find where our initiatives took place, please find them HERE! (a good place to start is by clicking on the ‘School/College’ cell and check specific schools).
In addition to being on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll in each year it applied, UConn has been recognized with multiple awards and distinctions:
- 2011: No Honor Roll Application this year
- 2014: UConn earns “with distinction” designation in the General Community Service category
Through student, faculty, and staff support UConn reported more than 15,000 UConn students engaged in over 1.3 million hours of service through volunteerism, academic service learning, and community engagement internships for the 2015 submission.
Application Highlights –
The total number of students who engaged in community service of any kind – 15,133
The total number of all community service hours engaged in by the institutions students – 1,308,254
Spotlighted Programs
Urban Semester, Urban and Community Studies
For almost 50 years UConn has offered a truly unique educational, professional, and life changing semester-long experience through an intensive internship and study away program dedicated bolstering existing programs aimed at benefiting the city of Hartford. Since the fall of 1968, Urban Semester, has accepted a total of 806 students into its program. Students have contributed upwards of 304,668 hours total toward imbalances in Human Services, State and Local Government, Community Organizing, Social Work, Advocacy and Research, Peace and Justice, Civil Rights, Environmental Rights, Community Media, Urban Problems, The Justice System, Welfare Rights, Women’s Issues, and Youth Development.
UConn Bridge to Guanin, Pre-Med Society Student Group
The UConn Pre-Med Society is a student-run organization that offers free medical services to the community of La Piedra, Municipality of Guerrra, Dominican Republic. La Piedra is an isolated community in a rural area of karst terrain and has one of the highest rates of poverty in Santo Domingo. Many of the community members find sustenance by raising chickens and growing yucca and gandules in small pockets of soil among the rocky terrain. In addition to education and food, La Piedra has a critical need for medical assistance since there is no public transportation available and the nearest medical clinic is 45 minutes away.
Husky Sport, Neag School of Education
Husky Sport (HS) is a community-campus partnership utilizing the power of sport to connect Hartford, CT schools and community organizations with UConn faculty, staff, and students. HS and partners collaborate to identify needs, implement programming, assess progress, and build lasting impactful relationships through in and out of school programs. Together they aim to intentionally engage youth and college students through shared learning in the following areas: nutrition education, physical activity, life skill development, and academic enrichment. HS’s vision is framed in sport based youth development (SBYD) and utilizes service learning practice. Rather than expand to other neighborhoods, HS has intentionally added more programming encompassing a larger number of children in the North End, along a greater age continuum (K–12) and in more aspects of a child’s life (i.e. in school, out of school time). HS offered 3 service learning courses at UConn and 2 in high schools, and operated 5 out of school time and 4 school-based partnerships.
Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative, School of Law
The Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative, Inc. (“CULI”) clinic, with the assistance of law students, began providing legal services to nonprofit organizations in January 1998 from the campus of University of Connecticut School of Law. CULI offers a unique service learning opportunity for law students and critical legal assistance for the nonprofit sector that has been underserved for decades. CULI provides transactional legal services to nonprofit organizations and public sector entities in Connecticut. To be eligible for CULI’s assistance, clients generally demonstrate a commitment to neighborhood revitalization: most of CULI’s clients are located in urban communities. Often, CULI’s clients have a little or no funding to cover legal expenses. CULI balances the client’s financial capacity, the impact of the client’s project, and CULI’s available resources in determining the proposed legal fees for any particular project.
CT Partnership for Child Welfare Excellence, School of Social Work
The UConn School of Social Work (SSW) and partner, the CT Department of Children and Families (CT DCF) have collaboratively established the Connecticut Partnership for Child Welfare Excellence. The UConn SSW is one of only eleven schools of social work in the United States to be selected to participate in this five-year federal grant funded by the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children & Families, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. In all, thirty-five MSW students will receive stipends to complete field education placements at the Department for Children and Families and will have priority consideration for employment at the agency at the end of their education. This intentional pipeline from school to career particularly in the social work area holds numerous benefits for all stakeholders, especially those who are the most vulnerable; our children and our communities. This strong collaboration is intricately linked to the University of Connecticut’s stated goal of Public Engagement in its Academic Vision; “UConn seeks to facilitate “problem solving” for the state and beyond by coordinating efforts and carefully measuring its impact. On strategic topics such as priming the K-12-to-college pipeline in STEM and all other areas of education, promoting the health and wellness of our citizens, and eliminating the disparities and injustices that plague our society, UConn’s students, staff, and faculty will take a leadership role in addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time.” (UConn Academic Vision).