Leadership and Citizenship

Community and Public Service Opportunities and Recognition

image of Bob Sellery

Researcher-In-Residence

        Robert Sellery is researcher in residence at Shenandoah University's Center for Public Service and Scholarship. Mr. Sellery has an extensive background in the nonprofit sector as an employee, management consultant, and writer about leadership, or lack thereof, in nonprofit organizations.

Community Service Opportunities

        One of our main goals is to connect Shenandoah University students and teams with various agencies in our community for service-learning opportunities and community engagement. Contact lmanuel@su.edu for information on service sites such as Habitat for Humanity or public schools.

          The Center for Public Service and Scholarship was involved with the planning for the 9/11 Community Remembrance. Shenandoah University students helped with the community activities in Oldtown Winchester, on September 11, 2011.

 Public Service Recognition

        The Center for Public Service and Scholarship hosts the Public Service Awards Banquet to honor national, state, regional, and local people who set the standard for public service and giving back to their communities.  This year the Public Service Awards Banquet honored four outstanding people.

National Honoree - U. S. Senator Jim Webb

State Honoree - Virginia State Senator Mary Margaret Whipple

Regional Honoree - Trish Ridgeway, Director of the Handley Regional Library

Local Honoree - Dianna Price, Former Secretary of the Loudoun County Electoral Board.

Shenandoah University Pharmacy student Jason O'Neal wrote the following about his experience at the Public Service Awards Banquet.

     Each year, Shenandoah's Center for Public Service and Scholarship holds a Public Service Awards Banquet, during which public servants from local, regional, state, and national levels are recognized for their contributions, to the local, to the region, to the Commonwealth, and to the United States. I have now had the pleasure and the honor of attending two PSA banquets, and, in reflecting on these experiences, I see two distinct purposes.                                   

The first purpose is obvious enough: to recognize and reward exceptional public service in our community and at all levels of government. For 15 years, the Awards have honored everyone from local activists and mayors to governors and U.S. Senators. While this recognition is important- probably more so for local leaders than U. S. Senators - I believe the second purpose is the more important goal.

The real value of the Public Service Awards Banquet is the opportunity it gives interested students to meet these local and not-so-local luminaries, along with the many other important community leaders who attend the event. During this year's reception, I was able to meet and speak briefly with Senator Jim Webb. During dinner, seated at my table of pharmacy students was Senator Webb's press secretary. It was a great opportunity to speak with her, and we took advantage. We were interested in her story, what duties she had as press secretary, how she had come into that position, and where she thought she was headed. In turn, she seemed interested in our stories, what we thought about pharmacy, and what sort of political activism we had engaged in.

Looking across the room, I could imagine the many similar conversations going on at other tables. To me, this is what the Public Service Awards are all about: some of the best leaders of today sharing dinner with, sharing conversation with, and helping to mold some of the best leaders of tomorrow. 

 

         

 

 

 

 

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