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. With the projected growth in the number of college students the number of college volunteers could increase substantially.
This generation is so willing to give their time because their grandparents lived through the Great Depression and 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, said Jorgenson.
Between 2006 and 2008 the average national rate for volunteering among college students was 26.3% 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% per year, making the state average higher than the national average, according to a study by the Corporation for National Community and Service.
Since 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 who are wanting to volunteer can then 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, which is 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 their time as a group. Each member is required to volunteer at least five hours each semester.
The group was started in 2006 and only had about 8 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 aren’t even wanting to do this professionally, they are just that passionate, said Jorgenson.
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 greatly contribute to that number of college volunteers through projects such as Greek build, which is 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% 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.
I think 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, it will be called engage.ou.edu. This website 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 hopefully be launched in the fall of 2010, will provide a more legitimate way of tracking volunteer hours than students tracking it themselves. The hope is that this system will better motivate students to put together an impressive volunteer resume, said Dawkins, who serves on the engage committee.
Many of the students that will use the engage website will be Non-Profit Organizations minors. The Non-Profit Organizations minor has been offered for years but it was renovated by adding news classes in 2006 and again in the spring of 2009. There were about 25 Non-Profit minors last spring but 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. A Non-Profit Organizations major is being talked about but is still about five years away from being offered.
Some students, such as Mary Gray, Journalism and English Writing senior, did not start volunteering until they got to college. She went on a mission trip to Africa to work in an orphanage when she was a sophomore and fell in love with the idea of working for a non-profit one day.
Gray is not minoring in Non-Profit organizations but is volunteering to get experience because she eventually wants to work in the Non-Profit sector.
“I think my volunteer hours will be beneficial to my future because I want to work in a Non-Profit organization some day. I think volunteering helps you to become selfless and to give back in a world that is so center-focused,” said Gray.
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.
Whether volunteering will be helpful in a student’s future comes down to what type of work was done. It looks especially good if the student is volunteering at a consistent location, said Sarah Cole, Assistant Director of Career Services.
The Norman community has come to rely more on the amount of volunteering that has come out of this generation of college students.
OU students are what fuels our chapter, if they ever stopped volunteering it would be devastating to us, said Elizabeth Barnes, Big Brothers Big Sisters Enrollment Specialist. 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.
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