Washington -- The number of American university
students who volunteer for community service projects in
the United States has risen nearly 20 percent since 2002,
according to a new study.
University students “represent a large
and growing source of the nation’s volunteers,”
according to the Corporation for National and Community
Service, an independent federal agency that provides grants
and other support to volunteer organizations throughout
the country. The agency’s latest study found that
three in 10 university students, or 3.3 million people,
volunteered in 2005 – a gain of 600,000 students above
the 2.7 million reported in 2002.
On campuses and in the community, university
students are participating in a range of volunteer service
activities such as tutoring and mentoring children, raising
funds for worthy causes and helping their fellow citizens
recover from hurricanes and other natural disasters, including
deadly hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH AND SERVICE LEARNING
Each year, the Corporation for National
and Community Service provides opportunities for more than
2 million Americans of all ages to serve their communities
through Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America.
(See related
article.)
Universities in the United States were founded
with the principle of civic engagement in mind in addition
to their academic missions, according to the agency report,
titled College Students Helping America. To continue
the civic service tradition, universities have embraced
new ways of engaging students, such as through community-based
research and service learning.
Community-based research involves students
in research projects that address social issues. Service
learning integrates community service projects with classroom
learning, and students often receive academic credit for
their projects.
In October, for the first time, six colleges
and universities received the President’s Higher Education
Community Service Award for encouraging and supporting noteworthy
student community service projects. Three awards were for
excellence in general community service and three were for
Gulf Coast hurricane relief efforts.
TUTORING AND MENTORING
One honoree was California State University,
Monterey Bay, which has a service- learning requirement
for all undergraduates. Some students serve as tutors and
mentors in underperforming local schools, while others assist
homeless and other marginalized people by preparing meals
at the local soup kitchen, teaching at a computer lab in
the neighborhood, working on neighborhood beautification
and other projects.
One of the hurricane service honorees was
Tulane University in New Orleans. Although the university
itself suffered extensive physical losses from Hurricane
Katrina, an estimated 4,290 Tulane students contributed
68,880 hours toward relief activities. Tulane has a new
public service graduation requirement for all undergraduates,
beginning with the class of 2010.
“I enjoy mentoring because it makes
me feel like I’m part of the community,” Johns
Hopkins University undergraduate Allison Stoddart, 19, in
Baltimore told the Washington File. “The
kids are all really eager to participate.”
“I enjoy this opportunity to be a
role model for these girls during a tumultuous period in
their lives,” said Kristen Ward, 20, a student at
Middlebury College in Vermont, in a Washington File
interview about her experience mentoring middle school girls
through a program called Sister-to-Sister. Sponsored by
the American Association of University Women, Sister-to-Sister
hosts a daylong summit for the middle-school girls emphasizing
female empowerment.
Tutoring and mentoring are the most popular
volunteer activities on university campuses, followed by
fundraising and preparing, distributing and serving food.
In 2005, nearly 32 percent of university student volunteers
worked at educational or youth services organizations, and
24 percent worked at religious organizations. Other students
volunteered at organizations ranging from sports and cultural
groups to those specializing in international issues, public
safety, environment and health care. (See related
article.)
RAISING FUNDS AND BAKING COOKIES
More universities are creating programs
to help match students to volunteer opportunities and to
link community work with academic programs. Some service-learning
programs are entirely student-run; others work in collaboration
with the university or the community.
One example of a student-run program is
National Student Partnerships (NSP). Started by two undergraduate
students at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in
1998, NSP operates a national network of drop-in resource
centers, staffed by student volunteers from area universities.
Volunteers provide intensive on-site and referral services
to low-income people. NSP has spread to 12 cities around
the country and has mobilized more than 2,500 trained student
volunteers.
Religious groups of all types engage in
community service on university campuses. At Emory University
in Atlanta, for example, members of the Muslim Students
Association tutor refugee children at a local primary school
and raise funds for earthquake and famine relief. The Emory
Christian Fellowship is working to help revitalize a park
in downtown Atlanta and members bake cookies for the patients
of the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta.
Another growing trend among college students
is the “alternative spring break” movement,
in which university students perform community service projects
during their vacation week in March. Thousands of students
each year build houses for low-income families, care for
HIV/AIDS patients and tutor inner-city children.
A group of nine students from Vermont’s
Middlebury College Hillel, the Jewish student organization
on campus, traveled to Mississippi to provide Hurricane
Katrina relief work in March. More than 100 students from
10 universities worked together to repair 17 roofs in a
heavily damaged neighborhood. Middlebury trip leader Rebecca
Steinberg said, “It was an amazing experience that
I know we will never forget.”
The Corporation for National and Community
Service predicts service will continue to flourish in the
United States. It estimates 5 million students will be engaged
in volunteerism by 2010.
The full text of College
Students Helping America (PDF, 27 pages) and a press
release are available on the Corporation for National
and Community Service Web site.
More
information on National Student Partnerships is available
on the organization’s Web site.
See also the electronic journals College
and University Education in the United States and The
United States: A Nation of Volunteers.
For additional information, see also Education
and Volunteerism.
Martha Paluch
Washington File Staff Writer
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