UAlbany Honors Commitments to Community Engagement, Apr. 25

President Robert J. Jones and UAlbany students, faculty, and staff visit Hackett Middle School in Albany to illustrate the value of a college education. (Photo by Mark Schmidt)

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 21, 2014) – Underscoring his commitment to advance UAlbany as a publicly-engaged research university, President Robert J. Jones will honor university-community partnerships improving public well-being in the region and beyond at the 2014 President's Awards for Exemplary Community Engagement on April 25.

Jones will recognize 10 diverse recipients who address vital public needs and demonstrate commitment to community engagement in action. The awards will be presented to university and community partners from 5 - 6:30 p.m. in University Hall on the UAlbany main campus. The public is welcome to attend.

"It is important to shine a light on work we hold in high esteem," President Jones said. "The exemplars attest to community engagement as a core value. They also show the range of areas -- including business, education, public health, human services, and more – where community partnerships are having an impact."

In addition to encouraging engagement with diverse communities as a foundational value for the university, the president proclaimed it as one of four key goals of his administration in his September 2013 inaugural address noting, “UAlbany will redefine community engagement so dramatically, that it will be hard to tell where the campus ends and the rest of our region begins.”

The 2014 award winners include the following University individuals and programs, along with their many community partners:

• Capital Area School Development Association (CASDA), School of Education
• Center for Human Services Research, Education Team, School of Social Welfare
• Michelle Feder - B.A. '11, Ph.D. candidate, School of Education
• Healthy Environments and Relationships that Support (HEARTS) Initiative, School of Social Welfare
• Akiko Hosler - Associate Professor, School of Public Health
• Junior FIRST Lego League Expo, College of Computing & Information
• Hal Lawson - Professor, School of Social Welfare, School of Education
• Arlene Lev, LCSW-R, CASAC - Lecturer, School of Social Welfare
• Small Business Development Center, School of Business
• University in the High School, College of Arts and Sciences

Full descriptions of the winners are available on UAlbany’s Community Engagement page.

"Together we can create reciprocal partnerships to tackle what matters to the community,” President Jones said. "Society’s problems are too big to solve alone."

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