Mary Gray had never had any volunteering experience until the summer after her sophomore year when she went on a summer trip to Africa through a church. While in Africa she worked in an orphanage.
Once she got back she realized that she wanted to incorporate the volunteering atmosphere into her future career plans. Gray then began to work at the Center for Children and Families Incorporated in Norman where she volunteered by writing stories to send to their donors
“I got to a point where I realized that I wasn’t the only one and that there were people and animals that needed to help,” Gray said.
Gray is finishing up her undergraduate in journalism and English and plans to attend graduate school for public administration with an emphasis in non profit organizations.
More college age students in America have been volunteering in the past couple of years than ever before, greatly benefiting the non-profit organizations and the communities they serve.
“You are really seeing this call to service in the millennial generation,” said Susy Jorgenson, Director of the Non-Profit Leadership Program at OU.
Between 2002 and 2005 the number of college students who volunteered in America increased 600,000 students from 2.7 million to nearly 3.3 million according to a report by Corporation for National Community and Service.
The National Center on Education Statistics predicts that by 2010, over 18.8 million students will enroll annually in post secondary institutions and by 2014 the number of annual enrollments will be more than 19.4 million.
Norman is no exception to this trend. The Big Brothers and Big Sisters branch in Norman has seen major jumps in their number of student volunteers.
In 2007 they had 175 student volunteers. In 2008 the number of student volunteers grew to 294.
Currently in 2009, they have 373 active student volunteers. In two years they have more than doubled their numbers.
This generation is so willing to give their time because their grandparents lived through the Great Depression, Jorgenson said, because of that their parents were raised in a very money conscious environment. This caused their parents to be primarily concerned with making money and providing for their families and instilling a sense of ‘go chase your passion’ into this generation. Because of these factors, this generation of college students is more financially secure and willing to take big risks with their future.
Between 2006 and 2008 the average national rate for volunteering among college students was 26.3 percent per year, according to a study by the Corporation for National Community and Service.
In Oklahoma, between 2006 and 2008 the average volunteer rates for college students was 28.5 percent per year, making the state average higher than the national average, according to a study by the Corporation for National Community and Service.
Because the volunteering rate is so high among college students in Oklahoma, the OU campus has created many different outlets of volunteer opportunities.
One of the main sources of volunteer opportunities is the office of Leadership Development and Volunteerism. The office hosts at least 25 events each school year and each event has grown annually in the number of participants.
The office of Leadership Development and Volunteerism has a database where non profits in the Norman area can post a need and students wanting to volunteer can be matched with them, said Kari Dawkins, assistant director of Leadership Development and Volunteerism.
One event that many OU students get involved in every spring is The Big Event, an event where participants sign up to do volunteer work for one Saturday at non-profit organizations within the Norman region.
Last year the Big Event had more students registered to participate than ever before, said Kathryn Kramer, chemistry senior and assistant chair of The Big Event.
Another volunteer opportunity on campus is the Non-Profit Leadership Student Association, which is a student group that volunteers its time. Each member is required to volunteer at least five hours each semester.
The students get involved with local organizations such as Norman Regional Food Bank where they organize care packages to be given to needy families.
They also volunteer with Community After School Program, an after school care program that emphasizes the need for a healthy diet and exercise routine. The students help teach the curriculum and play with the children.
The group was started in 2006 and had about eight members in 2007, last year the number jumped to 60 and this year it’s close to 100.
Many students are starting to find the program, as freshmen and sophomores instead of as seniors and the interesting part of this trend is that a lot of these students don’t want to do this professionally, they are just that passionate, Jorgenson said.
The Non-Profit Student Leadership Association participates with many organizations in the Norman community where the student members regularly volunteer. One of the most popular student volunteer destinations is Habitat for Humanity, where the number of college volunteers doubled between 2008 and 2009.
OU students are a main factor in Habitat for Humanity’s work through projects such as Greek build, a project where the Greek community raises money for a house to be built for a deserving family.
Another popular destination for college volunteers is Big Brothers Big Sisters. During the past couple of years, 90 percent of their volunteers have been college age students.
Most college volunteers participate in the in-school program, which is where the big brothers and sisters go spend time with their little brother or sister during school hours on school grounds.
During these visits the big brothers and sisters and little brothers and sisters will talk, eat lunch together, play outside or whatever they choose to do during their time together.
It’s really important for students to volunteer in their college communities because they don’t realize the needs that the community has until they become more involved, said Cheryl Fisher, office manager at Second Chance Animal Sanctuary.
A new way for students to document their volunteer hours is in the making, called engage.ou.edu. This Web site will house a personalized way for students to track their volunteer hours by logging them into a system that will document their hours an then will require that the hours be verified by the organization the student volunteered at. This will enable students to print out their volunteer transcript when their time at OU comes to an end.
This system, which will be launched in the fall of 2010, will provide a more legitimate way of tracking volunteer hours than students tracking it themselves said Dawkins, who serves on the Web site’s committee. The hope is that this system will better motivate students to put together an impressive volunteer resume.
Many of the students that will use the engage Web site will be non profit organizations minors. The non profit organizations minor has been offered for years but it was renovated by adding new classes in 2006 and again in the spring of 2009. There were about 25 non profit minors last spring, this fall there are 75.
The College of Arts and Sciences is currently working on adding a graduate and undergraduate certificate for Non-Profit Organizations that should be in place by fall of 2010, according to Jorgenson. A Non-Profit Organizations major is being talked about but is still about five years away from being offered.
Having volunteer hours on your resume is seen as an asset by Career Services. Volunteer hours can be considered equal to internships or even jobs, according to Sarah Cole, Assistant Director of Career Services.
Whether volunteering will be helpful in a student’s future comes down to what type of work was done, Cole said. It looks especially good if the student is volunteering at a consistent location.
The Norman community has come to rely more on the amount of volunteering that has come out of this generation of college students said Elizabeth Barnes, Big Brothers Big Sisters Enrollment Specialist.
OU students fuel our chapter. If they ever stopped volunteering it would be devastating to us, Barnes said. They mean so much to their little brothers or sisters and they do so much for our community. I hope that this trend only continues to be positive.
Click here to see what a typical day looks like for a Second Chance Animal Sanctuary dog.
