Student Receives Scholarship from Statewide Group for Volunteering Efforts
Raritan Valley Community College student Valeria Izeppi of Washington (Warren County) has been recognized for her volunteer work with the New Jersey Campus Compact (NJCC) Changebuilder Scholarship Award. NJCC is a statewide coalition of more than 20 colleges and universities committed to the public purposes of higher education. The $1,000 scholarship recognizes one outstanding Changebuilder per campus.
While at RVCC, Izeppi has engaged many students in service projects that benefitted not only the campus, but also the local community. As President of the Environmental Club, the Biology major helped organize a partnership with the College’s Food Pantry to have all of the produce grown in the club’s garden donated to the Food Pantry. She also continued the Environmental Club’s efforts to ban the sale of water bottles on campus.
While a student in the Environmental Science class, Field Botany, Izeppi participated in a service learning project that offered hands-on learning focusing on botany and invasive species removal. As part of the project, Izeppi worked on the green roof garden on campus, planting and weeding the summer crops. She also assisted another student who organized an invasive species removal at the Round Valley Scout Camp.
Service learning enables students to receive academic credits for their volunteer work. The experience helped Izeppi to further solidify her career goals as well as increase her knowledge in ecology; she then shared her findings with the College and community. Izeppi plans to graduate from RVCC in December 2020 and transfer to a four-year college to study Environmental Science.
RVCC’s Service Learning program is nationally recognized for its commitment to the civic purposes of higher education. It recently was one of only two community colleges in the U.S.—and the only New Jersey college—to receive the first Eduardo J. Padrón Award for Institutional Transformation. RVCC also has received several honors for its commitment to environmental sustainability.
Changebuilder Scholars were selected through a competitive statewide application process as part of NJCC’s AmeriCorps Changebuilders program. The initiative is designed to increase the number of civically engaged college graduates who have developed 21st-Century workplace skills by at least 5,000.
RVCC is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. For further information, visit www.raritanval.edu.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2020
Media contact: Donna Stolzer, 908-526-1200, ext. 8383
PR #114