"Saint Michael's College makes reaching out to the community and being a good citizen an essential part of its educational enterprise," said the winning entry in the 2009 United Way Hometown Hero competition. At a gathering of hundreds of United Way volunteers, Saint Michael's was named the top winner, business category, from amongst some 72 outstanding United Way volunteers in all categories. The presentation was made at the Live United Celebration Breakfast September 3rd at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel & Conference Center.
In making the presentation, Sarah Soule, one of the panel of judges, said "Congratulations Saint Michael's College winner of the 2009 Hometown Hero Annual Volunteer Award in the business category for support of volunteerism through organizational policies and practices and for extraordinary service to the Chittenden County community."
"We were thrilled and gratified to be recognized by United Way especially in light of the many excellent businesses in this area that are involved in community service," said Dr. John J. Neuhauser, president of Saint Michael's College. "This award attests to Saint Michael's longstanding record of service to the larger community."
Based on the winning nomination, the college was cited for the culture of service that sees students, faculty and staff responding to the needs of the local community through group and individual efforts. Steeped in the tradition of service formed by the founding priests of the Society of St. Edmund, the college's volunteer service program MOVE has long been a leader in drawing the college community into service activities.
MOVE, Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts, was cited for involving some 70 percent of the student body in over 24 service programs. MOVE programs give some 22,000 hours of volunteer service to the community annually to such activities as tutoring Winooski school children and visiting senior citizens, supporting the Humane Society, Make-a-Wish, Habitat for Humanity, Little Brother/Little Sister, Woodside Juvenile Corrections Tutoring, and many other programs.
The nomination also cited the college's
Fire and Rescue Squads for their highly skilled, compassionate service to the college and the county, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Programs for New Americans, carried out through classroom projects and MOVE programs, were cited in the nomination for service to the local refugee community and for partnerships with Winooski and Burlington schools. The nomination also cited 15 Saint Michael's employees who serve in leadership positions for local community organizations.
Student volunteer accepts the award for Saint Michael's
In accepting the award for the college, Saint Michael's student volunteer, Katherine Hackett, a junior sociology/anthropology major, business minor, spoke about her involvement in MOVE. Her powerful talk described taking the Penguin Plunge into ice-encrusted Lake Champlain in the dead of winter for a Special Olympics fund-raiser. She followed that with inspiring remarks about the role of service in her college experience.
"So many of my classes have incorporated community service or service-learning into the curriculum," Ms. Hackett said. "The MOVE office ... reaches out to each new student ... I have found my niche," she said. "I work with people who have intellectual disabilities and it's important to me to support them and raise awareness." She added that she was once told that SMC stands for Serve My Community. "I try to live that message out each day ... I help others because that's what we do at Saint Michael's."
Saint Michael's College is a distinctive Catholic liberal arts college that provides an education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools they need to lead a successful, purposeful life that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael's is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's
Best 371 Colleges, ranking as 9th among institutions in Quality of Life and 2nd in Town-Gown Relations. It is one of only 270 colleges and universities nationwide, and one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus. Saint Michael's has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 250 graduate students and 100 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and its professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last nine years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009
U.S. News & World Report rankings. Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns.
Photo caption: Saint Michael's representatives accept the Hometown Hero Award, left to right, Buff Lindau, public relations director; Erin Collins, assistant director of MOVE; Katherine Hackett, student MOVE volunteer; Marilyn Cormier, director of government and community relations; Mike New, vice president for human resources, and Heidi St. Peter, director of MOVE