President Obama Recognizes Worcester Area Colleges

Courtesty of ChangedotGov

President Obama announced the winners of the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recently.  I am proud to say four Worcester Colleges made it to the list.

The initiative was started in 2006 to recognize colleges and universities that contribute to their communities in significant ways.  An important part of it is volunteerism.

The awards are tiered with the most exceptional being on the Presidential Awardee list, the next best being on the Honor Roll with Distinction list and the next best being on the Honor Roll List.

Though Massachusetts did not make the first tier there were a variety of colleges and universities from Massachusetts on the other 2 lists.  Worcester’s College of the Holy Cross was 1 of only 4 Massachusetts Colleges that was on the Honor Roll with Distinction list.  Worcester’s Assumption College, Clark University and Worcester State College made it to the Honor Roll list.

Similar to what President Kennedy did with the Peace Corp, President Obama hopes to “move mountains” with the help of people willing to volunteer their time on important issues.  You can find more details about this specific initiative at LearnandServe.gov.  In a nutshell the Higher Education Community Service Award:

annually recognizes institutions of higher education for their commitment to and achievement in community service. The President’s Honor Roll increases the public’s awareness of the contributions that colleges and their students make to local communities and the nation as a whole. President Obama has pledged to make service a central cause of his administration and wishes to commemorate the significant role that higher institutions, their students, staff, and faculty play in helping to solve pressing social problems in the nation’s communities.

In today’s world we need all the help we can get to solve not only social problems but economic ones as well.  Massachusett’s rich education environment is a fully untapped source of insights that can help push many balls forward.  Hopefully next year we will not only rise on the list but add more colleges and universities statewide that did not make the list.