The Corporation for National and Community Service has named Cornell to the 2010 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll "for exemplary, innovative and effective community service programs."

Awardees are chosen based on factors including scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of students involved, incentives for service and the availability of academic service learning courses.

"Cornell has a history of service; it's ingrained in the Cornell experience," said Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, director of the Public Service Center, the hub for outreach and service learning on campus.

The Public Service Center has grown at least tenfold since its founding in 1991, Vargas-Mendez said, and works with about 7,000 students and 120 faculty members per year.

"We have a very broad and diverse way of engaging our teaching, research and learning activities with communities to respond to particular needs or challenges that communities are facing," he said. Through the center, Cornellians are involved in projects ranging from Cornell Cares Day and the Cornell Prison Education Project to service-learning courses that take students on volunteer trips around the world.

The service experience is particularly valuable for students, Vargas-Mendez said.

"They get to confront what they learn in class with realities, and do activities that have real meaning and purpose in the world," he said. "They also have a venue to pursue their interests and passions, [while] getting real life skills that are transferrable later on. And they get a sense of community, democratic involvement, and accomplishment from responding to communities in need."

The Corporation for National and Community Service oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education.