RIPON, Wis. – The Corporation for National and Community Service honored Ripon College today with a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities.

“Ripon College counts civic engagement and service among its most cherished values,” said David Joyce, president of Ripon College. “This honor is a validation of how our students, faculty and staff put those values to work every day for the betterment of the community.”

Launched in 2006, the Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen 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.

Ripon College is one of only a few schools in the entire Midwest involved with the Bonner Leadership program. The college’s membership in the Bonner Foundation ensures that dedicated Ripon College students put in more than 10,000 hours in community support in one year alone. The development of the Office of Community Engagement has also placed importance on community. The office brings together continuing student placements, one-time volunteer opportunities, and service learning. Deano Pape, director of community engagement, says the office fills a vital role.

"The office of community engagement is a centralized place where community partners can get the help that they need. Our students, faculty and staff can also use the services of our office to grow, learn, and serve their community at the same time," said Pape.

“In this time of economic distress, we need volunteers more than ever. College students represent an enormous pool of idealism and energy to help tackle some of our toughest challenges,” said Stephen Goldsmith, vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the Honor Roll. “We salute Ripon College for making community service a campus priority, and thank the millions of college students who are helping to renew America through service to others.”

Overall, the Corporation honored six schools with Presidential Awards. In addition, 83 were named as Honor Roll With Distinction members and 546 schools as Honor Roll members. In total, 635 schools were recognized. A full list is available at www.nationalservice.gov/honorroll.

The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll is presented during the annual conference of the American Council on Education.

“I offer heartfelt congratulations to those institutions named to the 2008 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. College and university students across the country are making a difference in the lives of others every day – as are the institutions that encourage their students to serve others,” said American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad.

Recent studies have underlined the importance of service-learning and volunteering to college students. In 2006, 2.8 million college students gave more than 297 million hours of volunteer service, according to the Corporation’s Volunteering in America 2007 study. Expanding campus incentives for service is part of a larger initiative to spur higher levels of volunteering by America’s college students. The Corporation is working with a coalition of federal agencies, higher education and student associations, and nonprofit organizations to achieve this goal.

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. The Corporation administers Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America, a program that supports service-learning in schools, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations. For more information, go to www.nationalservice.gov.

About Ripon College
Ripon College is a four-year, private liberal-arts college with an average enrollment of 1,000 students located 70 miles NNW of Milwaukee, Wis. Founded in 1851, Ripon prepares students of diverse interests for lives of productive, socially responsible citizenship. Its liberal arts curriculum and residential campus create an intimate learning community in which students experience a richly personalized education. Ripon has consistently been recognized as a “best value” and “Best 368 College” by The Princeton Review, a “Best Buy in College Education” by Barron’s, a “Best Liberal-Arts College” by Washington Monthly, one of America's Best Colleges by Forbes, and is listed among the 160 best schools in the nation by Colleges of Distinction.