The Cornell University Public Service Center has been selected to be featured in the publication The Templeton Guide: Colleges That Encourage Character Development, which is due out in September. Published by the John Templeton Foundation, the guide identifies and recognizes outstanding college programs that help to foster, among college students, lives of "personal and civic responsibility."

The primary purpose of The Templeton Guide, according to the foundation, is to affirm that character development ought to be a customary part of higher education. The expectation is that the highlighted programs will serve as models for other colleges and universities to follow as they develop higher standards for ethical and civic-minded education. About 400 colleges and universities are represented.

Established in 1987 by international investor Sir John Templeton, the Templeton Foundation seeks to act as a critical catalyst for progress, by supporting programs and studies that demonstrate the benefits of an open, humble and progressive approach to learning in areas of spirituality and health, free enterprise and character development. The foundation funds over 150 projects, studies, award programs and publications each year.

Since its establishment in 1991, the Cornell Public Service Center has worked to support, expand and institutionalize the public service initiatives of students and faculty that connect academic study with real-world experiences and knowledge in local and global communities. The center's mission is "to champion the conviction that the Cornell University experience confirms service as essential to active citizenship." Using service learning as its basis, the center promotes and initiates student and faculty involvement in community service and social action.

The Templeton Guide will highlight the Public Service Center's student and faculty service-learning projects and programs, including Faculty Fellows in Service, Food Distribution Project, Alternative Breaks, Encourage Youth Educate Society and the Language Expansion Program. Each of these programs embraces service learning as a functional concept.

The Public Service Center is a unit of the Cornell Division of Student and Academic Services.