Saint Louis University Earns High Honors for Community Outreach

08/06/2020

Saint Louis University has been recognized by Great Value Colleges on its list of the 30 U.S. colleges excelling in community outreach. SLU ranked No. 7 in the nation.

The Great Value Colleges ranking specifically highlighted Saint Louis University’s continued commitment to service since the start of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

SLU’s Campus Kitchen (CKSLU) remained open and operating, serving some of the University’s most vulnerable neighbors who do not have regular access to nutritious meals and who are even more food insecure during the public health crisis stemming from the pandemic.

A donation drive for supplies to help frontline health care workers protect themselves and others as they care for patients battling COVID-19 drew more than 1,000 donations from the SLU community through July 13. Medical students volunteered to help with child care, pet care and errands for their front-line health care worker professors. 

SLU also participated, along with three other St. Louis organizations, in The Family Dinner Program to provide approximately 200 Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS) families with free nourishing meals.

Service at SLU

The Princeton Review in 2020 named Saint Louis University as the college that is the second most engaged in community service. In 2019, SLU was the most engaged college in service. The Carnegie Foundation has classified the college as being a community engagement campus.

In 2018 alone, Saint Louis University’s students, faculty, and staff managed to dedicate 1.7 million hours to community service efforts. Dozens of SLU courses incorporate service-learning.

In addition to this, SLU provides free legal services every year, delivers over 2,500 meals to needy families through Campus Kitchen and does so much more for its community.

Methodology

Great Value Colleges compiled the list by looking for wide-ranging community outreach programs, aggregated ranking on the methodology lists, evidence of effective response to coronavirus and innovation in outreach programs. The methodology reflects how colleges and universities have adapted their community support to coronavirus. The list is culled from:

• The Princeton Review, Most Engaged in Community Service
• Engagement Scholarship Consortium, University-Based Engagement Offices
• Times Higher Education, Top universities in the world for global impact
• Carnegie Foundation, Carnegie Community Engagement Classification 

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Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers nearly 13,000 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place. For more information, visit slu.edu.