MCCC Makes the Honor Roll

High school students who excel at their studies are named to their school’s honor roll. College students who excel are named to the dean’s list.

Colleges that excel at community service are named to the Corporation for National and Community Service’s President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

Montgomery County Community College was named to the 2010 honor roll for the fourth consecutive year, along with Montgomery County institutions such as Ursinus and Gwynedd-Mercy colleges.

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually recognizes institutions of higher education for their commitment to and achievement in community service, according to the corporation’s website.

In 2010, 2,385 MCCC students engaged in more than 6,154 hours of curricular and cocurricular service-learning initiatives, with 56 students engaged in 20 hours or more of service each, according to a MCCC press release.

Throughout the year, members of student clubs and organizations worked with dozens of community partners throughout the year, including the American Red Cross, Impact Thrift Stores, Manna on Main Street and the American Cancer Society.

“We have a strong commitment to community service because it’s threaded throughout institutional framework; it’s incorporated into academics, co-curricular opportunities, athletics and in our strategic goals, in particular our goal to ‘Extend Community and Strategic Partnerships,’” said Jenna M. Meehan-Klaus, M.S., MCCC coordinator of Civic and Community Engagement, Student Leadership and Involvement, in an email interview.

“We are also instilling the importance of using an individual’s time and talents to volunteer in local nonprofit organizations that benefit the community where they will live and work,” Meehan-Klaus added, noting that most MCCC students live and work in Montgomery County after graduating.

MCCC students have skills that may be particularly useful to members of the community, especially children, who may be underserved by the health care community.

“Medical laboratory technicians, medical assisting and nursing [students] all provide free health screenings, and the dental hygiene program hosts Sealant Saturdays," Meehan-Klaus said.

As a part of a leadership development program, student members and staff advisors of the West and Central Clubs who attend a Student Leadership Retreat each fall spend half a day working with one of three local nonprofit organizations, building their communication and team leadership skills while giving back to the community, she said.

“Students are the driving force behind the majority of projects that run throughout the year, and they are the ones that encourage their peers to get involved,” Meehan-Klaus said.

“As a college, we also celebrate the achievements of all our volunteers during our annual Service Re-Wind Celebration, which gives students, faculty and staff the chance to look back on the service they have completed during the academic year, and celebrate their individual commitments to volunteering on local, national and international levels,” she said.

Some of the varied projects throughout the year included service during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, “Think Pink” for Breast Cancer, and National Campus Sustainability and Earth days.

In addition, seven students and staff spent a combined 210 hours working with Habitat for Humanity in Virginia during .

Funding and support from Learn and Serve grants through Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development and partnerships with the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation have further enabled the college to expand its involvement in service-learning related opportunities, the press release said.

According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, college students make a significant contribution to the volunteer sector. In 2009, 3.2 million students performed more than 307 million hours of service.

The corporation oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact and the American Council on Education.