Carter Partnership Award, 2005

Kalamazoo College and Kalamazoo Public Schools won the Carter Partnership Award as the most outstanding campus-community partnership in Michigan. Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter presented the award during the Carter Partnership Award and Governor's Service Awards Dinner in June, 2005 in Detroit.

The Corporation for National Community Service (CNCS) selected Kalamazoo College to its “President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll” in 2006. The college is affiliated with CNCS and Campus Compact, a national organization that promotes community service by colleges and universities, and was cited “with distinction for general community service.” The Michigan Campus Compact has honored the College for a variety of programs, many implemented under the auspices of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Center for Service-Learning. The College’s many service-learning programs have included the efforts of faculty and students to improve science education in the public schools (kindergarten through high school); to develop bilingual mentoring programs that improve academic performance and generate intercultural understanding; to raise awareness of and promote solutions for local and global hunger; and to provide interpretation assistance for Spanish-speaking patients during health care appointments. Kalamazoo College President Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran is one of the 25 members (selected by Governor Jennifer Granholm) of the Michigan Community Service Commission.