March 2009: The Los Angeles Board of Education officially recognized the Northeast Education Strategies Group (NESG) efforts to improve college access and equity Northeast Los Angeles.

 

2006-2009: For four consecutive years, Occidental's commitment to community engagement was recognized by thePresident’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. In 2006, 2007 and 2009 the college received special distinction for exemplary service to disadvantaged youth.

 

December 2008: Occidental College was selected as a community engagement institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the  Advancement of Teaching, becoming one of a handful of liberal arts colleges to be so designated for its commitment to mutually beneficial collaboration with its surrounding communities.

 

2007-2008: Politics Professor Caroline Heldman was selected for California Campus Compact – Carnegie Foundation Faculty Fellows: Service-Learning for Political Engagement Program. Professor Heldman’s Disaster Politics class takes students to New Orleans during the Winter break, where students learn from textbooks as well as from directly experiencing post-Katrina issues of race, economics, and politics.

 

2007-2008: Physics Professor Adrian Hightower, ECLS Professor Gabrielle Foreman, and Politics Professor Caroline Heldman received grants from Project Pericles for their Civic Engagement Courses, (funded by the Teagle Foundation. Professor Hightower’s Energy Conversion and Resources class engaged his students with community organizations interested in efficient uses of energy, and at the end of the class presented their recommendations to their community partners.  Professor Foreman’s Black Activism and the Archive class evolved, through interactions with two community partners (Southern California Library and Los Angeles Community Action Network), into a Community and Culture class. The culmination of the class was a “reverse tour,” with about 20 community organizations and schools participating in workshops and orientations to how to access college resources.

 

2007: Solheim Lutheran Home in Eagle Rock received the Quality First Award by The Aging Services of California, based on research done by Psychology Professor Roberta Mancuso. Professor Mancuso and her students designed and implemented a walking program to measure the psychosocial benefits of exercise for the residents of Solheim Lutheran Home.