USC’s Pro Bono Program, an award-winning community service initiative operated through the School of Law, was presented the Commission on Higher Education's Service Learning Award Jan. 8.
"What makes this award different from the others we have received is that it recognizes the educational component of our efforts," said Pam Robinson, director of the Pro Bono Program. "It isn't based on hours performed or pounds of food collected or numbers of student volunteers. It recognizes the importance of the educational impact of the program on our students, and that is tremendously rewarding."
The CHE instituted the awards in 2002 to promote service learning, which it characterizes as "a meaningful endeavor with wholly positive outcomes for our students, faculty, and communities.” Service learning, as defined by the CHE, is "college student learning at any level and in any situation that is linked in a direct, hands-on fashion to the resolution of a problem or concern in a target community outside the institution."
Awards were based on four criteria: the ability to resolve community concerns or address community issues; the degree to which the project enhances student learning; the degree to which the project meets the parameters of the commission's definition on service learning; and the project's impact on campus.
USC's Pro Bono Program was founded in 1989 and has involved thousands of students performing a wide range of projects, including serving as guardians ad litem for abused and neglected children, tutoring, conducting arbitration hearings for juvenile offenders, providing income tax assistance, translating public information brochures about legal topics into Spanish, providing legal information to the Hispanic community, conducting legal research for attorneys on pro bono cases, and clerking for attorneys of hospice patients. Through its food drives, the program has collected more than 71,000 pounds of canned food.
Among the many honors and awards the program has received over the years was being named the 444th Daily Point of Light by President George Bush in 1991. The S.C. Department of Youth Services named it the Volunteer Organization of the Year in 1992, and Gov. Jim Hodges declared Sept. 27, 1999, as USC School of Law Pro Bono Day.
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