NEW ROCHELLE, NY — For the fourth year in a row, The College of New Rochelle has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service 2013 Honor Roll. It is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.
Over 2200 CNR students completed 165,000 hour of service in the 2011-2012 academic year.
The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually highlights the role colleges and universities play in solving community problems and placing more students on a lifelong path of civic engagement by recognizing institutions that achieve meaningful, measureable outcomes in the communities they serve.
The College of New Rochelle was recognized for three specific programs.
The undergraduate Chemistry Department at CNR continued last year’s service in collaborating with Westchester County Department of Planning (DOP) in monitoring the Westchester County Watershed. This year’s work was completed at Tibbetts Brook Park in the city of Yonkers. CNR’s students worked to provide analyses for studies which are an important component of Westchester County’s comprehensive water quality protection program. Three different locations at Tibbetts Brook Park were monitored using water quality parameters in order to determine the differences in the chemistry of the water in the park at each of these locations. The data gathered added to a comprehensive database of information for Westchester County’s Department of Planning and was made available to county residents on the DOP website.
Campus Ministry sponsored a service trip to aid in disaster relief after the May 2011 tornados in Joplin, Missouri. CNR students painted and made repairs to a family’s house and property which had been damaged during the tornado. Students collaborated with Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri and the Catholic Campus Ministry Office of Missouri Southern State University to help refurbish the new Catholic Charities office in Joplin and organize supplies at a distribution center. Participation was during spring break. Royal Heights Methodist Church sponsored our group and other students participating in tornado relief efforts that same week for dinner. This gave CNR students the opportunity to become engaged with victims of the tornado and to hear their stories, as well as interacting with other volunteers from across the United States.
Eighteen students and a biology faculty instructor participated in a one-day cleanup of Muskrat Cove, a forested woodland area along the Bronx River in New York. Students completed this service in fulfillment of a summer session Environmental Wellness course in CNR’s School of New Resources baccalaureate program. Students collaborated with a local community group, the Bronx River Alliance (BRA). BRA works to protect, improve, and restore the Bronx River corridor in order to serve as a healthy ecological, recreational, and educational resource for the communities through which the river flows in New York City and Westchester County, the beneficiaries of this service project.
In addition CNR students annually participate in numerous service activities. Among them are Midnight Runs to New York City to help the homeless, serving meals at HOPE Soup Kitchen, working with Habitat for Humanity, teaching ESL at the Adult Learning Center, and volunteering with seniors in assisted living programs in New Rochelle. For the College’s seventh annual Community Service Day, CNR community members took part in a variety of activities, including: collecting 350 books for preschoolers; hosting a luncheon for senior citizens; collecting school supplies for students living in homeless shelters and food for residents of domestic violence shelters; and, hosting a basketball tournament for over 100 athletes with disabilities. The College’s yearly Christmas celebration incorporates a Toys-for-Tots drive.
