JOHNSON CITY (March 12, 2013) – The national President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll was announced March 4 at the American Council on Education annual conference in Washington, D.C., and East Tennessee State University was again acknowledged.

The university has earned recognition every year since the inaugural listing in 2006 and has twice been mentioned in the “with distinction” category.

Teresa Brooks Taylor of ETSU’s Service-Learning and America Reads programs says, “ETSU takes pride in its service initiatives and community partnerships. They have benefited the community as well as our students.” Both Service-Learning and America Reads are administered through the Department of Counseling and Human Services in the ETSU Claudius G. Clemmer College of Education.

During the past year, 4,000 ETSU students volunteered over 50,000 service hours. The Service-Learning program alone has established partnerships with 180 community organizations.

One of those partnerships is El Nuevo Tennessean, a bilingual magazine and e-zine produced by students in Mass Communication classes taught by Mary Alice Basconi, Martha Milner and Shara Lange. Students in Dr. Ardis Nelson’s Spanish classes translate stories, and the university’s Language and Culture Resource Center offers project support. The magazine is printed by Lakeway Publishers of Morristown.

“This project introduces students to Northeast Tennessee’s Hispanic community,” Basconi said. “They gain valuable skills while creating a publication that is really needed.”

The Honor Roll program is an initiative created in response to then-U.S. President George W. Bush’s call to service to build and support the civic engagement mission of the nation’s colleges and universities.

The Honor Roll is sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, and the U.S. departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development in concert with Campus Compact. Its goal is “to increase public awareness of the contributions that students, faculty and staff are making within their local communities and across the country through volunteer service,” and the program “also identifies and promotes community service model programs and practices.”

For a full list of recipients and descriptions of their service, visit www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll/.

To learn more about service programs at ETSU, contact Brooks Taylor at (423) 439-7776 or taylort@etsu.edu.