Dominican University received national recognition and a $5,000 cash award at a gala dinner Monday evening attended by former First Lady Rosalyn Carter.
The event, co-hosted by the Illinois Campus Compact and the Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration, honored Dominican and two other universities for their work supporting outside human service agencies. Created six years ago, the Carters’ organization fosters and acknowledges service learning and community development activities among college students and faculty.
Dominican’s program partners with the San Miguel Charter school in the Austin neighborhood. University officials expressed delight that the partnership with San Miguel, which was established three years ago, was named “second finalist” and had been recognized so quickly. By contrast, the Southern Illinois University/Women’s Center partnership, which won the Carter Award, has been in existence since 1972. The Illinois State University/Illinois Weslyan University/Habitat for Humanity partnership, which won “first finalist” honors, has been around more than 10 years.
Jessica McKinnon, a spokeswoman for Dominican, noted that the partnership with San Miguel is only one of numerous ways that the university has committed to working with various groups and businesses.
“As you know, we have also ‘adopted’ several businesses in the community through the business school’s ‘Adopt an Entrepreneur,'” she said. Beneficiaries of that program, which is offered free of charge, include The Careful Peach on Harrison Street, (earlier in 2006) and currently Pieritz Bros. In addition, Dominican design students are currently working with the Harrison Street Business Association to decorate store windows for the upcoming Holiday Lights celebration. And Dominican’s Advanced Public Relations class developed a PR campaign for Hephzibah Children’s Association last semester.
“We also placed an intern in the local Boston Market this summer to help it with its marketing efforts.”
-Bill Dwyer