Richard Eberst may have been selected as the sole recipient of the 2004 Ernest A. Lynton Award for Professional Service and Academic Outreach, but the Cal State San Bernardino professor knows the recognition should include a whole list of names.

"This is an award that actually requires collaboration," said the health science and human ecology teacher who also serves as director of Community-University Partnerships.

"All the people I've worked with in the community and on campus are part of this."

Richard Eberst is the first educator from the CSU system to win the award of academic outreach, and only the third from California.

The Lynton award is presented annually by the American Association for Higher Education to an educator who has been instrumental in helping improve the quality of life and health in the community. Eberst is the first educator from the 23-campus California State University system to win the award, and only the third from California.

Eberst began looking for ways to help the community not long after he arrived at Cal State San Bernardino in 1991. One of his main projects that same year was the Focus 92411 initiative, which seeks to improve San Bernardino's west side.

"This area seemed to have all the problems," Eberst explained. "I looked at it and said, 'How can we create what we call a healthy village?' "

Working with students and faculty at the university, Eberst questioned Westside residents on what improvements they would like to see, then worked with community and business leaders to make those dreams a reality.

"They wanted a bank, they wanted a high school and a homework center," Eberst said. "We helped them get those things."

As director of Community-University Partnerships, Eberst has worked to increase the level of involvement between the Cal State San Bernardino and the community by making the university system more understandable and the faculty more approachable. The organization pairs students who must complete a class project with community organizations who need certain services.

"If you have to design a park for a class, why not design a real park?" Eberst asks.