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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

IU service learning initiative to be showcased at Indiana Statehouse this week

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 3, 2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- More than 130 Indiana high school students will descend on the Indiana Statehouse Rotunda on Friday, Feb. 5, to honor students and veterans who have participated in VETS: Voicing Experiences Through Service.

VETS, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service and administered through IU's Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, supports students, ages 14-21, as they build relationships with veterans and collaboratively record oral histories. These histories will be submitted to National Veteran's History Project at the Library of Congress.

The appreciation celebration will showcase VETS and Learn and Serve Indiana projects through displays and presentations from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Learn and Serve Indiana, also funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, supports service learning in Indiana by integrating community service projects with classroom learning.

The day's activities will culminate in a reading of a proclamation from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' designating Feb. 5 as a Day of Celebration for Service Learning. All activities are free and open to the public.

The VETS approach combines academic learning, transition, career development, oral history and service learning. To date, more than 600 students have collected several hundred oral histories. For more information, contact Cate Hart at 812-855-6508 or e-mail camhart@indiana.edu.

About the VETS Project: VETS is a program of national significance, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service in partnership with the National Service Inclusion Project. The Indiana Institute on Disability and Community collaborates with the University of Vermont and TransCen of Rockville, Md., to support this initiative.

About Learn and Serve Initiatives: The Indiana Department of Education supports service-learning programs in schools that help students from kindergarten through Grade 12 meet community needs, while improving their academic skills and learning the habits of good citizenship. Currently nine school corporations in Indiana are participating in Learn and Serve projects.

About the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University: The Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Indiana's University Center for Excellence on Disabilities, works to increase community capacity in disability through academic instruction, research, dissemination and training, and technical assistance.

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