Stories

Nazareth Receives Presidential Award for Community Service

Nazareth College is proud to announce that for the first time ever, it was named a Presidential Awardee in the 2013 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The distinction is the highest honor a college or university can receive, at the federal level, for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement.

One of only five schools selected, Nazareth was cited for its achievements in special focus area, early childhood education, which aligns with the President’s education and innovation priorities. Each year since the Honor Roll’s inception in 2006, Nazareth has been named to this prestigious list, twice making the "with distinction" category. This year, more than 1,000 colleges and universities applied to the Honor Roll.

“Nazareth has a long history of service learning and civic engagement, and believes strongly in preparing our graduates to be active leaders and participants in an ever changing world,” said Nazareth College President Daan Braveman. “As our mission statement says, we attempt to foster in our students dedication to the ideal of community service. We are honored to receive this prestigious award – and owe much of it to the students themselves. They are the energy driving our commitment and they are the ones who make it all happen.”

Focus Area Recognized: Early Childhood Education

The special focus area recognizes Nazareth’s collaborative efforts with the Discovery Charter School (DCS), a newly opened elementary charter school where the students are primarily from urban areas. Through the following programs, Nazareth College students were able to provide curricular and co-curricular service hours in DCS:

  • Horizons at Nazareth: a year round enrichment program supported by Nazareth undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, alumni and volunteers that includes an intensive 5-week, on-campus summer session for first through third grade DCS students.
  • Literacy Assessment, Program Planning and Assistive Technology for Diverse Learners: a course offered by Nazareth’s Department of Inclusive Childhood Education where twice a week graduate teacher candidates work with DCS learners. The teacher candidates design and implement individualized instruction based on assessment data to improve DCS students' literacy skills. Nazareth teacher candidates  collaborate with DCS teachers to enhance student achievement.
  • Partners for Learning: Students in the Partners for learning program develop on-going relationships with and work to reduce the achievement gap for K-3 children at DCS. Working in small groups, the college students assist and support learning in the targeted areas of reading, writing, and math, as well as in the development of classroom materials.
Civic Engagement and P-12 Education
  • In a city where only 46 percent of youth graduate from high school, Nazareth students are also helping local students prepare for college. Last year, Nazareth graduate students taught math and reading skills to elementary school students and sought opportunities to expose young participants to college classes and future employment opportunities.
  • Each semester, teacher education courses are taught on-site in elementary schools throughout Monroe and surrounding counties. For more than 15 years, the Department of Inclusive Childhood Education has implemented clinically rich teacher education programs, designed to support opportunities for civic engagement and service-learning for teacher candidates and strengthen PK-6 student learning.
  • For the past 21 years, fall orientation at Nazareth College has kicked off with a day of service. Through partnerships with local organizations, Nazareth students engage high-needs elementary students in a curriculum rich in literacy, arts, social skills, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), an effort that has led to significant academic gains.

Nazareth’s many distinctive civic engagement initiatives helped the College achieve this honor.

About CNCS

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America programs, and leads President Barack Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

Founded in 1924, Nazareth College is located on a close-knit, suburban campus in the dynamic, metropolitan region of Rochester, N.Y. The College offers challenging academic programs in the liberal arts and sciences and professional programs in health and human services, education, and management. Nazareth's strong cultures of service and community prepare students to be successful professionals and engaged citizens. The College enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students.