Last year, Guilford students logged over 60,000 community service hours. To give some perspective, 60,000 hours translates into 2,500 days spent volunteering at sites like Glenwood Library, Greensboro YMCA, and African Services Coalition. For such dedication to serving the community, the Corporation for National and Community Service recently awarded Guilford the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction.

Supported by several government departments, including the Department of Education, the Honor Roll is the highest federal acknowledgment for community service work.

Scope, percent of student involvement, innovativeness of programs, and incentives are all criteria for the honor which was awarded to only seven North Carolina colleges.

“I am certainly proud of the amount of work that students and staff have put into the community,” said Max Carter, director of the Friends Center and campus ministry coordinator. “It is wonderful to get recognition.”

“This is an example of our students living out the college’s core values, which include community, justice and stewardship,” said President Kent Chabotar in a Guilford press release.

Similar principles are promoted by Learn and Serve America, the Corporation for National and Community Service program, who presented the award.

In finding and developing service projects, Learn and Serve America adheres to several principles including meeting an obvious national need, development of stronger communities, and the enrichment of volunteers’ own lives, all of which Guilford service projects try to meet.

Guilford’s Career and Community Learning Center has 15 committed volunteer sites, each one meeting a need in the Greensboro community.

On one single night in Guilford County in 2006, the Homeless Prevention Coalition counted over 1,000 homeless persons. Two volunteer sites try to tackle the issue of homelessness and to help those affected: Pathways, a tutoring program at homeless shelter, and the Servant Center, a homeless shelter for men.

Other sites have grown out of national work trips and are now applied to the Greensboro community.

“Project Home grew out of an Appalachian Service Project in 1992,” said Carter. “A student was working in West Virginia with the poor who owned homes but couldn’t afford to maintain them. The student came back and realized that we’ve got those folk here.”

Working for and in partnership with those in Greensboro has led to the creation of a very cohesive community, which bursts the fabled Guilford bubble.

“We’ve spent a long time making community partnerships through service within our community,” said James Shields, director of community learning. “It’s the difference between us and other institutions. We have been very intentional in the way we build community so we can work with Greensboro.”

While all of the committed sites are located in Greensboro and focus on local problems, Guilford students also serve worldwide.

Carter organizes work trips during every break to various parts of the U.S. In January, 20 Guilford faculty and students did 800 hours of service in Bogalusa, La. Students within the Bonner Scholars program also travel to serve around the globe, with an upcoming work trip to India planned.

Although service is intended to help others, offering one’s time and skills to a cause often leads individuals to learn about themselves and shape their lives around their volunteer experiences.

Learn and Serve America calls “service-learning,” where “students not only learn about democracy and citizenship, they become actively contributing citizens and community members through the service they perform.”

“Service makes people approach their vocation in a different way,” Shields said. “It’s not about just finding a job; it’s about doing what you want to do and a lot of people figure that out through service.”

“When I started going to Pathways, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into the education department,” said sophomore Caitlin Lee. “Going there, being with kids and knowing I was helping in any way told me that I could teach and that I wanted to.”

“Our students, through exposure to service, get a chance to test out their passions and discern their interest. They get a chance to find a meaningful life,” Carter said.

“We certainly have a lot of room for growth and some new projects will make us expand the scope of our service,” Shields said. “But next time we will not just be on the Honor Roll; we will be seen as a leading school in terms of service.”

For more information on community service opportunities, visit the Career and Community Learning Center in Founders.