Palo Alto University Earns Place on National Honor Roll for Community Service

One of 690 institutions of higher education to receive this honor

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Palo Alto University (PAU), a private non-profit higher education institution, was named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The Honor Roll is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that engages more than 4 million Americans in service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and the Social Innovation Fund, and leads President Obama's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. This designation is the highest honor a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

“Through its work, institutions of higher education are helping improve their local communities and create a new generation of leaders by challenging students to go beyond the traditional college experience and solve local challenges.”

“Palo Alto University has a proven track record of using education and research to improve lives around the globe,” said Allen Calvin, PhD, President of PAU. “Our students, faculty, and staff are the ones who deserve the credit for this award. From the counseling services they help provide at PAU’s Gronowski Center to their conflict resolution efforts in Rwanda, Cambodia, Northern Ireland and more, they are the ones who make it happen.”

PAU has several community service efforts, ranging from the Gronowski Center, its off-campus training clinic that enables graduate students to provide mental health services on a sliding scale, to the faculty’s involvement in community school programs to prevent teen suicide. Other PAU community efforts include C-STAY, were faculty provide support to anxious youth, faculty driven research on grief and PTSD stemming from genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, and student volunteer efforts at the San Francisco PRIDE celebrations in support of LGBTQ causes among others.

“Congratulations to Palo Alto University and its faculty, staff and students for its commitment to service, both in and out of the classroom,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of CNCS. “Through its work, institutions of higher education are helping improve their local communities and create a new generation of leaders by challenging students to go beyond the traditional college experience and solve local challenges.”

Inspired by the thousands of college students who traveled across the country to support relief efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, CNCS has administered the award since 2006 and manages the program in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as the American Council on Education and Campus Compact.

More information about the Palo Alto University community service efforts can be found at http://paloalto.edu. More information on eligibility and the full list of Honor Roll awardees can be found at http://nationalservice.gov.

About Palo Alto University

Founded in 1975 as the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, Palo Alto University (PAU) is dedicated to improving lives through education and research anchored in psychology, clinical training and practice in a diversity of cultures, and service to communities around the world. PAU offers seven degree programs, ranging from Bachelor level to Ph.D., including a consortium with Stanford University and a Ph.D./J.D. dual degree program with Golden Gate University. The University’s faculty is ranked among the top 25 schools and universities for research productivity out of the 166 APA-accredited clinical psychology Ph.D. programs. Through the University's Gronowski Clinic, PAU offers mental health services to the community at-large regardless of ability to pay. PAU is a charitable, non-profit institution.

About the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll

The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll honors the nation’s leading higher education institutions and their students, faculty and staff for their commitment to bettering their communities through service. These are institutions that reflect the values of exemplary community service and achieve meaningful outcomes in their communities.

About the Corporation for National and Community Service

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, the Social Innovation Fund and other programs, and leads President Obama’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve.