 Mercer applied for and received national recognition in 2008 from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for the university's commitment to community engagement.Mercer is the only college in Georgia, and one of just 119 in the United States, to be selected by the foundation for its 2008 Community Engagement Classification.The university joins 76 institutions identified in 2006, including Emory University and Spelman College, the only other Georgia institutions to achieve the classification to date.