Community Service Work-Study Program Receives Award

Oberlin Heritage Center has selected the Bonner Center for Service and Learning’s Community Service Work-Study Program (CSWSP) as the recipient of the Business Leader Service Award as part of its 14th annual Community Awards. The award will be presented at a dinner meeting on Wednesday, April 1, at the Oberlin Inn.

CSWSP equips students who have a Federal Work-Study award as part of their financial aid package with valuable pre-professional experience with nonprofit organizations while also providing community partners with quality workers. The Heritage Center was one of the first community partners.

Approximately three or four work-study students are employed by the Heritage Center in any given year. At the Heritage Center, students assist with research, tours, children’s camps, publicity, and collections conservations, among other duties.

CSWSP oversees the placement of work-study students at their community partner sites, making great effort to place students in jobs that directly support their academic programs or career objectives. Several former student workers have chosen to follow career paths that reflect the work they did at the Heritage Center, including museum administration, education, architecture, and historic preservation. A few students have even served on the Heritage Center Board following graduation.

The Business Leader Service Award is one of six of the Heritage Center’s Community Awards. This year’s other award recipients are Danielle Camino, Community Teacher of the Year; Ron Gorman, Community Historian; Sheila Hicks, History Teacher of the Year; Beverly Miller, Oberlin Heritage Center Volunteer of the Year; and Mary Louise VanDyke, Heritage Guardian Award.