WHEN I was growing up, I don’t remember hearing much about community service. My parents were certainly civic-minded, but they were a lot more concerned about the work I did around the house. Like cleaning bathrooms and weeding the lawn.
“I remember one kid who was a fullback, who waited until his senior year to volunteer,” he said. “Then he filled the 40-hour requirement by every Saturday taking a blind man to a gym and walking him through his physical activity.” That changed the boy’s outlook on his role in the community and helping others, Professor Youniss said.
“I remember one kid who was a fullback, who waited until his senior year to volunteer,” he said. “Then he filled the 40-hour requirement by every Saturday taking a blind man to a gym and walking him through his physical activity.” That changed the boy’s outlook on his role in the community and helping others, Professor Youniss said.
What about the many programs that offer young people a way to travel and do good deeds, by building schools in Costa Rica or digging wells in Thailand?
That’s fine if you want to travel and can afford it. But most people I talked to seemed to feel that volunteering in your own community over a sustained period of time offers a more worthwhile experience. And if you’re using travel volunteerism to burnish your college application, beware. It may backfire.
“We’re not idiots,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “We know the price of an air-conditioned hotel and a plane. It’s an act of affluent tourism masquerading as community service.”
A 2008 survey of admissions officers from the top 50 colleges and universities by the organization DoSomething.org, found that admissions officers consistently put a higher value on continuous volunteering over several years at a local place than a short-term stint overseas.
Mark Segal, director of Westcoast Connection/360° Student Travel, said he understood why some people might be cynical about spending a fair amount of money to volunteer abroad. But, he said, the teenagers who went on the type of community service programs that his company offered typically did volunteer work at home as well.
Spending two weeks or a month overseas immersed in a project “is a life-changing experience,” Mr. Segal said. “You’re opening the doors for relationships and learning in a way that’s very different than being a traveler.”
In the survey, the admissions officers said they were confident they could discern when a student was being disingenuous about her commitment to community service. One noted that “insincerity seems likely when there is a laundry list of activities with minimal commitment.”
Those surveyed also said they understood some students had to work and didn’t have time for volunteering. My sons do have the luxury of being able to help in the community, and I’m glad to say they seem to want to. It’s the other service I spoke about — the bed-making and trash-emptying — that they, for some reason, seem far less eager to do.
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