November 01, 2006
Henderson, Nev. Nevada State College is one of the country’s first and Nevada’s only colleges and universities which was honored in the inaugural President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll this year.
Nevada State College ranked among prominent universities such Harvard University, DeVry University and Boston University. Four hundred ninety-two colleges and universities were honored.
I attribute this award to the success of our community-based learning program, said Dr. Fred Maryanski, president of Nevada State College. We are extremely proud to have already earned national and presidential recognition for our community service efforts, which are still in their first years of existence.
The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll was created in response to President Bush’s call to service by building on and supporting the civic engagement mission of the United States colleges and universities, according to the Learn and Serve America Web site. Final decisions regarding winners were made by the Corporation for National and Community Service based on extraordinary community service.
More than one million students from the winning schools participated in a variety of community service activities. Locally, Nevada State College students worked on a wide range of projects including: assisting African refugee families in employment searches, prenatal care assessments and teaching and newborn care instruction; providing elementary school students from at-risk schools with education in the arts previously cut from school curriculum; and providing nearly 300 hours of mentoring and guidance to more than 150 high school freshman while working on a paleontological investigation.
Specializing in meeting the needs of the state by offering majors such as nursing and teaching, Nevada State College strongly emphasizes community-based learning, which requires students of all majors to perform community service for a grade.
The community-based learning programs provide students with a real-world setting where they can apply what they’re learning in school and enhance their skills, allowing them to be more marketable to the professional world upon graduation.
This is just the beginning, Maryanski said. We have many plans in development that will continue to grow our community-based learning program and, in turn, provide huge benefits to the community.
The award is co-sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, the USA Freedom Corps, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A complete list of chosen colleges and universities is available at nationalservice.gov/honorroll.
Nevada State College is the newest member institution of the Nevada System of Higher Education. As a comprehensive liberal-arts college, NSC offers four-year baccalaureate degrees in 15 programs.
With an influx of new freshmen students, this year Nevada State College has seen its enrollment numbers rise by more than 25 percent since last fall. In doing so, the college met and exceeded the State of Nevada’s mandated enrollment numbers for the Fall 2006 semester. Over 2,000 students were enrolled at Nevada State College as of the beginning of the Fall 2006 semester.
The college opened its doors to students in September 2002 after the Nevada State Legislature determined the need for enhanced educational opportunities in southern Nevada in 1997.
NSC, which is based on a 600-acre site in the foothills of Henderson, provides progressive programs and study areas for its students in cooperation with the University Nevada, Reno curriculum requirements, maintains a low student-to-professor ratio in comparison to a number of Nevada universities and colleges, and competitive tuition rates.
For more information on Nevada State College, call: 702. 992.2000 or visit: www.nsc.edu.
President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll
