In recognition of her work to promote service learning and community-campus partnerships throughout the Bay Area and the UC system, Megan Voorhees, director of the Cal Corps Public Service Center, has been named winner of the 2012 Richard E. Cone Award. The California Campus Compact, a statewide professional association, bestows the honor annually on an individual who has made important contributions to partnerships between communities and institutions of higher education.
Cal Corps Director Megan Voorhees
“In addition to being a passionate and skillful community leader and an expert in her field, she has worked tirelessly to promote service learning and community engaged scholarship to administrators, faculty, students and community partnerships, with impressive results,” Elaine Ikeda, the compact’s executive director, said in a news release.
Voorhees has directed the UC Berkeley student-service center since 2000. During her tenure, the compact said in its announcement, she led the organization’s expansion “from a volunteer service program that engaged 450 students [a year] to a campuswide center that engages over 6,000 students through service-learning courses, field work, volunteer projects and internships in partnership with over 150 community organizations.”
Asked about the honor, Voorhees called it “an award for my center and my staff” as well as herself. Each year’s Cone Award recipient gives a talk — “not just a thank-you speech,” she says, but a more ambitious discussion about the field — to fellow professionals at a statewide compact gathering.
Related information and coverage:
- Cone Award announcement on the Cal Corps website
- Campus, city expand joint literacy program (NewsCenter article on Project BUILD)
- Cal Corps director a contributing author of Spirit in Action, a guidebook for changemakers (NewsCenter article)