For the fourth consecutive year, Charleston Southern University has been recognized by the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll and the U.S. Department of Education and Corporation for National and Community Service as a university committed to volunteer service.

Charleston Southern is one of 98 colleges and universities honored for leadership in developing programs in interfaith/community service. CSU students provided more than 72,000 hours of volunteer service in the past year.

Dr. Rick Brewer, vice president for student affairs and athletics, said, “The commitment of our faculty, coaches, staff and students to serving our local community on a consistent basis is central to CSU’s mission and vision. We quickly recognize that we have been blessed to be a blessing to others.”

Approximately 35 campus organizations engage in community volunteer service each year. Some of the projects Charleston Southern students have participated in include: mentoring and tutoring local high school students, volunteering at Water Missions International, packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and volunteering at the Summerville Miracle League.

“There’s no greater satisfaction than service to others,” said Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education.

The honored schools submitted applications under the category of interfaith/service to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, which launched in 2006 to recognize exemplary work that places students on a lifelong path of civic engagement.

This is the first year that one of the four categories honors schools that include interfaith engagement as an intentional component of community service. The interfaith/community service category grew out of the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge, an initiative inviting colleges and universities to commit to a year of interfaith cooperation and community service.