Piedmont Virginia Community College Wins Eduardo J. Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation
Charlottesville, Va. – March 28, 2023 – Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) has been awarded Campus Compact’s Eduardo J. Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation. The award recognizes community colleges that have successfully implemented institution-wide efforts to address issues of public concern by aligning teaching, research, practice and values in service of the common good. Recipients are institutions that have undertaken comprehensive efforts to advance the values articulated in Campus Compact’s 30th Anniversary Action Statement of Presidents and Chancellors.
Piedmont Virginia Community College was founded on the belief that education transforms lives and strengthens communities. PVCC’s commitment to preparing students for lives of engaged citizenship is evidenced by curricular and co-curricular activities. For the past three years, PVCC has offered civic engagement classes in each major and made them a requirement for graduation. PVCC maintains a deep emphasis on civic learning and action—engaging students in its “PVCC Votes!” initiative, facilitating campus-wide deliberative dialogues and garnering numerous recognitions for on-campus voter engagement.
PVCC President Jean Runyon shared, “Our commitment to community impact includes a bold pledge to prepare students for lives of engaged citizenship. We believe our civic engagement work contributes to the economic, civic and cultural vitality of our region, the Commonwealth of Virginia, our nation and the world. As we embark on our next 50 years of excellence and impact, we will continue to promote civic engagement as a core element of our mission as a college.”
The Eduardo J. Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation is presented as part of Campus Compact's Impact Awards, which recognize the outstanding work of individuals and institutions in pursuit of the public purposes of higher education. Visit https://compact.org/news/campus-compact-announces-2023-impact-award-rec… to see all award recipients.
Awardees will be recognized during a summer event series hosted by Campus Compact and the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) to celebrate the recipients of each organization’s annual awards.
To learn more about civic engagement at PVCC, visit pvcc.edu/civic-sense.
About Campus Compact
Campus Compact is a national coalition of colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. Campus Compact supports institutions in fulfilling their public purposes by deepening their ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility. As the largest national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, it provides professional development to administrators and faculty to enable them to engage effectively, facilitate national partnerships connecting campuses with key issues in their local communities, build pilot programs to test and refine promising models in engaged teaching and scholarship, celebrate and cultivate student civic leadership, and convene higher education institutions and partners beyond higher education to share knowledge and develop collective capacity. For more information, visit www.compact.org.
About Piedmont Virginia Community College
Established in 1972, Piedmont Virginia Community College is a nonresidential two-year institution of higher education that serves Central Virginia – principally, residents of the City of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson. PVCC is one of 23 community colleges in Virginia that comprise the Virginia Community College System. PVCC is committed to providing access to a college education for all who can benefit, an opportunity for each student to reach her/his potential and excellence in all programs and services. Visit www.pvcc.edu.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Susian Brooks
Director | Marketing and Media Relations
434.961.6574 | sbrooks@pvcc.edu