Cal State San Bernardino has been named to the 2009 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction. The award is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

This is the first time CSUSB has earned the "with distinction" honor, after being named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for three consecutive years.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual Honor Roll award, recognized nearly 750 colleges and universities for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice. Cal State San Bernardino was among only 115 institutions in America selected for the Honor Roll With Distinction list.

"This is a well deserved recognition for our faculty, students and nonprofit partners that work together to make a difference in local communities," said Diane Podolske, director of CSUSB's Community-University Partnerships. "Community engagement is central to our mission, and even during this time of economic distress, we continue to emphasize the importance of sharing our time and talents to address local needs."

Podolske added that 2,596 CSUSB students participated in community service projects last year, including more than half who contributed more than 20 hours of service. In addition, 1,836 students enrolled in courses that included a service-learning component. CSUSB offered 134 service-learning courses in 2008-2009, distributed throughout the university's five academic colleges.

Several service projects for which Cal State San Bernardino has become known were highlighted in the award application, including the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which engages CSUSB accounting students in the preparation of tax returns for low-income residents, and the DisAbility Sports Festival, a one-day event that showcases physical activity and sports for people of all ages and all abilities.

CSUSB also featured the service efforts of student clubs in the application, including a project organized by the university's history and anthropology clubs to restore San Bernardino's Pioneer Memorial Cemetery for the city of San Bernardino's Bicentennial Celebration.

Cal State San Bernardino was chosen for the Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction 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. Another selection factor was the university's attainment of the prestigious Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, which recognizes excellence in both quality and quantity of university service.

"Congratulations to Cal State San Bernardino and its students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities," said Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. "Our nation's students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face. They have achieved impactful results and demonstrated the value of putting knowledge into practice to help renew America through service."

The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education.

For more information, visit the Corporation for National and Community Service Web site.