January 6, 2011

It is my pleasure to inform you that Bergen Community College has begun the New Year by garnering one of the most prestigious designations a college can earn, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 2010 Community Engagement Classification.

This recognition places Bergen in the top tier of national institutions of higher learning that offer civic- and community-based learning opportunities for students. Bergen is in the company of highly respected colleges and universities that include Notre Dame, Cornell and Bucknell Universities as well as the University of Connecticut and the University of Southern California.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center that supports needed transformations in American education through tighter connections between teaching practice, evidence of student learning, the communication and use of this evidence, and structured opportunities to build knowledge.

Most important, however, the Carnegie Foundation classification means that Bergen students have access to curricular engagement that merges scholarship with community service initiatives and public-private partnerships.

Please see the announcement below for more details.

Sincerely,

G. Jeremiah Ryan, President
Bergen Community College

Carnegie Foundation Recognizes Bergen Community College
for Community Service Outreach Initiatives

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has recognized Bergen Community College for its commitment to community engagement. Bergen was one of just 12 community colleges nationwide to garner the Community Engagement Classification.

The Carnegie Foundation selected only 115 colleges and universities for 2010 classification. Bergen, Rutgers University and Richard Stockton College were the only New Jersey colleges selected.

The Foundation encourages colleges and universities to become more deeply engaged, to improve teaching and learning, and to generate socially responsive knowledge to benefit communities. It selected colleges based on institutional practices of community engagement demonstrating alignment of mission, culture, leadership, resources and practices.

The classification puts Bergen in company with some of the top colleges and universities in the country, including Notre Dame, Cornell and Bucknell Universities as well as the University of Connecticut and the University of Southern California.

“Community engagement is a primary mission of community colleges and Bergen has incorporated it as one of the five goals of the College’s strategic plan for growth through 2013,” said President Dr. G. Jeremiah Ryan. “Bergen takes a multidirectional approach to engaging the community.”

Student Participation through Service Learning
Students are a key focus of the College’s community engagement initiatives and the number of Bergen students applying what they learn in the classroom to helping others outside of the campus community through Service Learning projects increases every year.

Student mentoring at the College Now Academy

The number of faculty offering Service Learning projects during the 2009-2010 academic year increased by 20 percent. Approximately 600 students completed more than 9,000 hours of Service Learning during the 2009-2010 school year. Since 1999, service learning students and faculty have partnered with more than 200 community organizations, public agencies and schools, investing more than 33,000 Service Learning hours to make the world around them a better place.

Dental hygiene students help children with autism

Community Engagement
In the past year, Bergen has created three new institutes – the Public Policy Institute, the Institute for Nonprofit Leadership and the Center for Peace, Justice and Reconciliation. The Public Policy Institute held public forums on the impact of a 2 percent cap on property taxes and the potential and pitfalls of shared government services.

Bergen Initiatives Local and Global
The College was the first in northern New Jersey to work with the New Jersey Service Learning Higher Education Consortium to alleviate childhood hunger as part of the “New Jersey Learning to End Hunger Campaign.”

Students have mounted campaigns to help victims of natural disasters around the work, most recently raising money throughout the Spring 2010 semester by initiating the “Give ‘til it Helps Haiti” campaign.

Bergen professors also worked with students to provide informational presentations on malnutrition, prenatal diets and global health issues to senior citizen centers, pre-natal clinics and non-profit organizations within the local community.

In December, the College hosted a youth conference to discuss research conducted by Bergen’s Center for Suburban Justice on current trends of bullying, substance abuse, and the impact of social networking among students in fourth through tenth grade.

Workforce Development
The College serves more than 16,000 students enrolled in non-credit continuing education courses, job-training, workforce development and other career development programs for adults.

The College’s Workforce Training on Demand Program addresses the personnel needs of companies and the needs of unemployed and underemployed people as it did last fall by designing a series of courses for Rockleigh, NJ-based Crestron Electronics. The 10 previously unemployed individuals in the program started new jobs at Crestron within a week of completion.

The Employment Pathways Initiative (EPI), based at Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands, provides employment training and job placement services for youth and adults. In consort with EPI, the Regional Center for Disability Employment known as the MOSAIC Center helps adults with disabilities obtain job-training and placement.

The College also partners with groups such as workforce investment boards and chambers of commerce to host events including job skills workshops, discussion forums and job fairs.

Bergen Ranks With Some of Top Colleges in Region
The Carnegie Foundation selected 66 public institutions and 49 private colleges and universities. They represent campuses in 34 states. New Jersey’s neighbors also earned recognition. The Foundation recognized 10 New York colleges and universities, including Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Skidmore College and St. John's University. Eight Pennsylvania institutions also made the grade, including La Salle, Saint Joseph's and Temple Universities as well as Muhlenberg College.

Hackensack | Paramus | Meadowlands