ARCATA -- A Humboldt State University professor has received a national award for her work connecting community service with coursework.

Professor of Communication Armeda Reitzel is among 15 finalists honored recently by Campus Compact, a national coalition of more than 900 college and university presidents committed to the civic purposes of higher education. The organization promotes partnerships between campuses and communities.

Reitzel was named a finalist from among 141 nominees for the 2003 Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning. Campus Compact makes the award each year for innovations in scholarship that integrate service into the community. The award is named for the president emeritus of Indiana University, now a senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Reitzel said she was thrilled to be chosen from candidates across the nation.

She was nominated by HSU President Rollin Richmond. Reitzel said Richmond has expressed interest in seeing her work at schools in eastern Humboldt County. She has used Cesar Chavez grants to lead K-12 students in several education projects, most recently on environmental issues. Her university students work with the younger students on service projects which vary from creating art to planting a community garden. Reitzel said she's seen this benefit younger and older students alike.

"They learn about who they are and what their relationship is to other people, to their community," she said.

Reitzel said she's had her students involved in community service work for years, long before the term "service learning" became popular. Her university students taught younger English as a Second Language students over the years, for example.

"I present it as a 'get to', not as a 'have to,'" she said.

She said former students come back and tell her they remember such projects from years ago.

"It's the experential part of education that students will remember," she said. "They can always go back to the book to look up a fact, but they'll remember what they experience."

A long-time HSU professor, service-learning advocate, and classroom volunteer, Reitzel was named HSU Outstanding Professor of the Year for the 1998-1999 school year. She has conducted service-learning workshops for K-12 teachers in California and New Mexico. She was recently named to a two-year term on the steering committee of Educators for Community Engagement. Reitzel is also a United States co-chairwoman-elect this year of an intercultural communication group that is part of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and has 15,000 members worldwide.