RVCC Students Receive Prestigious Community Service Awards
Five Raritan Valley Community College Nursing students were presented with the College’s prestigious Service Learning Leadership Award, an honor given to students demonstrating outstanding leadership and personal development attained through their service learning project.
Going above and beyond for their community, the Nursing students were recognized for their exemplary contributions at the Martin Luther King Youth Center, an after-school program serving low-income, minority children and young teens. The RVCC students – all of whom are immigrants – selected the MLK Center because of their own cultural similarities to the organization’s population.
This year’s Raritan Valley Community College recipients are: Janet Adeleke (Hillsborough); Phebean Messeh (Sayerville); Anyanna Onwumelu (Highland Park); Patricia Sanchez Reyes (Flemington); and Sindy Serrano-Maradiaga (Hillsborough). Click here to learn more about RVCC’s nationally recognized Service Learning Program.
Raritan Valley Community College’s Service Learning Leadership Award focuses on projects demonstrating a high level of initiative in all areas of planning including: identifying the community need, planning the service and putting that plan into action. And, this year’s project at the after-school center focused on topics such as: Healthy Food Choices, Holistic Health Care Delivery, Disease Prevention, and Promotion of Wellness. The Nursing students taught the children about the differences between healthy food and fast food and offered information about the nutritional characteristics of ethnic meals. They also encouraged the MLK students to cook their ethnic recipes using more heart-healthy alternatives.
To recognize their outstanding endeavors in the community, the RVCC students were not only honored at an RVCC Board of Trustees meeting but also featured on the News 12 “Viewer of the Day” television segment.
The Nursing students were among the RVCC students who were honored with the 2018 New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Award, which was given to the students of the College’s award-winning Service Learning Program. The Jefferson Award annually highlights the spirit of civic engagement among New Jersey’s 1.5 million volunteers and awards medals in 22 categories of volunteer service. The RVCC students were honored in the “Youth Volunteer Group” category.
The impact of RVCC’s community service programs is profound! As a national leader in service learning, Raritan Valley Community College’s award-winning program engages more than 1,000 students annually in service to 250 community organizations in Somerset County and Hunterdon County through 75 different courses and student clubs. As part of the program more than 50,000 hours of service have been provided to diverse community organizations, donating the economic equivalent of more than $1,000,000 in services to the community. RVCC’s commitment to serve its community has been recognized numerous times including two prestigious national honors – the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement and the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. Learn more!
About RVCC
Raritan Valley Community College has been ranked the #1 community college in NJ by both BestColleges.com and Niche.com. As a leading state college in NJ, RVCC offers students the top degree programs and the best local career training.