National award for giving to community

For the fourth year in a row, Weber State University has been nationally recognized for its efforts in community service. WSU received the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll award from the Corporation for National and Community Service. This award is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service, learning and civic engagement.
The contributing factor for the award included WSU students’ efforts within Weber and Davis communities and partnerships with nonprofit companies.
“The reported numbers in the 2009 academic year was 4,799 student (service hours),” said Brenda Kowalewski, co-director of the WSU Community Involvement Center. “That’s 22.9 percent of the population of WSU students. The Community Involvement Center partners with companies in Weber, Davis and surrounding areas and most are nonprofit. The Service Opportunity Directory for the center has over 200 companies currently listed.”
The main goal of the Community Involvement Center is to involve students, faculty and staff in service.
The center currently has three service groups working to help the community, WSU staff, faculty and students. The first group is curricular. This group works with faculty to find the appropriate community partners to teach students while also helping the community partner. The center provides faculty assistance in recording student service hours, arranging meetings with community partners or providing students with opportunities to visit partners. 
“I have seen how experiences reinforce what’s happening in class,” said Colleen Packer, a WSU communication professor, when asked how the Community Involvement Center has benefited students and faculty. “The first things students do is moan and groan, but after the project many say it is the best assignment they have ever done. The students learn about social issues and it goes beyond the traditional assignment.”
The second service group is the co-curricular. This group is for students who want to volunteer in community service.
“The center helps work with students who want to volunteer for community service or are just interested in giving back,” Kowalewski said. “The center finds the student’s interest and hobbies and matches them with community partners.”
The third service group is AmeriCorps, a domestic Peace Corp for service within the state.
“AmeriCorps is designed for college students who want to serve,” Kowalewski said. “In order to participate in AmeriCorps, students commit to volunteer 300 hours within a year while going to school. At the end of the 300 hours the students receive an education voucher of $1,000 that they have seven years to use and it can pay for anything.”
The Community Involvement Center has been incorporated into many WSU classes. Packer’s senior seminar class in the Communication Department currently allows students to participate in community-based research as part of their senior thesis.
“I feel like it is applicable to the real world,” said Jemaica Salmon, a WSU senior graduating in organizational communication. “You are actually helping people and that gives me more motivation.”