The kickoff symposium luncheon for the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge took place today at 12:00 p.m. in Copley Formal Lounge, officially announcing and recognizing Georgetown as one of 278 universities nationwide that has heeded to Barack Obama’s call for American institutions of higher learning to devote their resources to promoting harmony and justice in their own communities and beyond.

The Challenge, as explained in its brochure, calls for universities to “commit to a year of interfaith and community service programming on campus.” And although its title specifically refers to tolerance and community between those with differing religious beliefs, the Georgetown community plans to focus its resources on, according to a brochure from the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, “combating domestic poverty and improving educational opportunity.”

“This issue [of education] is especially salient to us at Georgetown,” Aamir Hussain (COL ’14), a member of the Georgetown Challenge Student Task Force, said during his speech at the luncheon. “While the institutions of higher education are among the best in the nation, the public school system is one of the worst.”

The idea of education as a core component of community service as well as being closely related to interfaith understanding was one that was shared and discussed by most of the 7 guest speakers at the luncheon. Among them were two representatives from the Department of Education, Director of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Reverend Brenda Girton-Mitchell and Methodist Minister and Senior Advisor of FBNP Ken Bedell.

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On July 14, the U.S. embassy in Mexico announced the award of 63 technical school scholarships for students, teachers, and technicians from rural Mexico. Georgetown will administer the program under its Scholarships for Economic Education and Development.

The first set of scholarships will allow 20 young indigenous Mexicans to study quality control, agribusiness, and small business management at community colleges across the U.S. The scholarship began as a private initiative, conceived by the late Fr. Harold Bradley, S.J. as the Central American Peace Scholarship program.

After being taken over by the United States Agency for International Development, Georgetown stepped in to help administer the scholarships, which target underserved populations and aim to develop a region’s local capacity.

Since its inception, over 400 students and teachers from the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua have received an award.

SEED also allows the University to make vital connections in the foreign aid community. “[I has created] opportunities for students interested in community service, such as the work of the Water Justice Alliance organized by current student, Mark Svensson, which is now operating in two communities in the Dominican Republic and Haiti as a result of connections with SEED alumni who have returned home,” said Scott Fleming, associate vice president for federal relations.

It’s a wonderful day in Georgetown’s neighborhood!

While Georgetown’s town-gown relations can get pretty testy, according to researchers at Westfield State College, GU is actually one of the best neighbors in the country [PDF].  Georgetown made their “Best Neighbor” honor roll in their recent survey of colleges and universities.

The presentation, “Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships” emphasizes that the current state of the economy makes the relationships between universities and their surroundings even more important than ever before.

They ranked universities that they felt “demonstrated…long-standing cooperative efforts with community leaders to rehabilitate the cities around them, to influence community revitalization and cultural renewal, and to encourage economic expansion of the local economy, urban development and community service.”

While Georgetown didn’t earn a spot in the top 25, we did make the honor roll.  The honor role highlights over 100 colleges and universities that “figured prominently in lengthy cooperative efforts with community leaders to rehabilitate the cities around them.”

Georgetown’s Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson cited programs run through the Center for Social Justice, such as business consulting with non-profits, direct service and tutoring and working with local jails and prisons as evidence of Georgetown’s commitment to the local community.

“Across the city and region there’s a lot that we do really well,” Olson said. “There are a lot of needs in this community. We need to continue looking around and keep building those connections. We haven’t finished that work, but I believe we have a laudable track record.”

Much of Georgetown’s community service is created through student-run initiatives, such as Grassroot Hoyas, a student-founded and run group that goes into D.C. schools to promote AIDS awareness.

“What I admire most about Georgetown is its deep commitment to social justice,” Grassroot Hoyas founder Tyler Spencer said. “While so many students volunteer in amazing ways around the world, Grassroot Hoyas has helped us realize that we can and should work to solve problems that exist right in our backyard.”

Every year Glamour, one of the more respectable frothy women’s mags, names its Top 10 College Women to “honor budding leaders in every field”—and this year a Hoya made the list!  Senior Pamela Nwaoko (COL ’10) was selected thanks to her extensive involvement with tutoring and mentoring underprivileged teens.

According to her Glamour profile, Nwaoko grew up in a poor neighborhood in Irvington, New Jersey.  She joined an intensive tutoring program, SEEDS, when she was in junior high and it helped her gain admittance to “a prestigious New England prep school.”

Now at Georgetown, Nwaoko has become a tutor and mentor herself, co-directing Girl Talk, a peer-to-peer mentoring program in D.C., and staying involved with SEEDS.  She was also named a Goldman Sachs Global Leader in 2008 for her commitment to academics and community service.

Nwaoko wants to go to law school next year and ultimately wants to return to her home state; in a video interview with Glamour she explains her dream is to become Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.