The University of St. Thomas was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service to America’s communities.

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 University of St. Thomas is extremely proud to have been
named to the President's Community Service Honor Roll for a second year,” said Jean-Philippe Faletta, associate professor of political science and director of service learning. “Academic service learning and civic engagement are a natural fit with our Catholic mission and with the values of the University's founders, the Basilian Fathers.”

The Service Learning Program at the University of St. Thomas
enables students to connect classroom theory with practical experience in the community, and offer resources to meet the needs of the Greater Houston Metropolitan area. The University responds creatively to challenges posed by poverty, globalization, limited economic resources and changing demographics, as well as to the mission of Catholic universities delineated in Ex Corde Ecclesia.

The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and
Community Service, 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.

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.

“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.