Posted on March 10, 2016 by Joanna Carver
wilson
The University of Texas at San Antonio has been honored with the United States President’s Bronze Volunteer Service Award by Junior Achievement.
Bennie Wilson , a senior lecturer in management at the UTSA College of Business and a member of the Junior Achievement of South Texas Board of Directors, accepted the award on behalf of the university on March 8 in New York City.
“Junior Achievement is the largest international non-profit organization dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 on business subjects affecting their personal and professional futures,” said Wilson, whose students have volunteered with Junior Achievement since 2002.
“UTSA and Junior Achievement of South Texas have partnered to bring business education to public and private elementary, middle and high school students in the Bexar county area.”
During the 2014-15 academic year, UTSA College of Business students clocked more than 5,000 volunteer hours. Over the past 14 years, more than 6,500 UTSA business students volunteered with Junior Achievement and conducted presentations on such subjects as work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to more than 133,000 area students.
President George W. Bush established the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation (the Council) in 2003 to recognize the valuable contributions volunteers make in communities and encourage more people to serve. The Council created the President’s Volunteer Service Award program as a way to thank and honor Americans who, by their demonstrated commitment and example, inspire others to engage in volunteer service.
In 2006, Junior Achievement became an official certifying organization for this award, which recognizes corporations with a U.S. presence that provide volunteers to teach Junior Achievement programs anywhere in the world.
UTSA is committed to serving the community in meaningful ways. In 2015, UTSA received the prestigious Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a nationally recognized designation that affirms UTSA’s commitment to engaged scholarship, service-learning, community outreach and other engagement activities.
UTSA also has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for the past five years. This federal honor highlights colleges and universities that show a clear commitment to community service and service-learning, while achieving meaningful and measurable outcomes in the communities they serve.
Courtney Clevenger—
Please send your comments to: wendy.frost@utsa.edu
— Joanna Carver
