U.S. News Says DePaul’s Service Learning Program Among Nation’s Best

    Fiske Guide Reports DePaul as Top Chicago Catholic University



    CHICAGO, Aug. 22 /
EMWNews
/ -- DePaul University's

emphasis on community-based service learning has been singled out as one of

25 top service-learning programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report,

which cited it in the "Programs to Look For" section of the magazine's

"America's Best Colleges 2009" edition. The publication sought out "schools

with outstanding examples of academic programs that are believed to lead to

student success," and then invited college presidents, chief academic

officers and deans of students from over 1,300 colleges and universities to

name 10 institutions that were the best examples of each program type.



    But that's not all. The "Fiske Guide to Colleges 2009" praised DePaul

as "the best Roman Catholic university in Chicago" and lauded the campus

environment, noting that "DePaul's Lincoln Park setting is like New York's

Greenwich Village without the headaches."



    "DePaul is attracting accolades from a broad spectrum of sources,

including national general interest and business magazines, higher

education industry trade publications and, most importantly, our students

and the employers who are seeking to hire them," said the Rev. Dennis H.

Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul's president. "We've set out to become one of

the finest urban Catholic universities in the United States, and the public

has noticed."



    Caryn Chaden, associate vice president for Academic Affairs, says

DePaul's emphasis on engaging students in learning outside the classroom is

one of the university's core educational philosophies. "In community-based

service learning courses, students see concepts they've learned in class

play out in real-life situations, reflect on differences between theory and

practice, and engage deeply with community partners. It's a distinctive

quality of DePaul students' academic experience," she said.



    U.S. News wrote, "In service learning programs, required (or

for-credit) volunteer work in the community is an instructional strategy.

What's learned in the field bolsters what happens in class and vice versa."



    This is the sixth consecutive year that U.S. News has ranked DePaul's

service learning program among the nation's Top 25. DePaul is the only

university in Illinois honored in the service learning category.



    Last month, DePaul was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the "Great College

Town" category and No. 10 in the nation in the "Diverse Student Population"

category by the Princeton Review.



    With an enrollment of 23,401 students on two city and four suburban

campuses, DePaul is the largest Catholic university in the nation and the

largest private, not-for-profit university in the Midwest. DePaul is an

innovative and diverse university offering pragmatic educational programs

that instill values, including a commitment to community service.