'Civic generation' rolls
up sleeves in record
numbers
By Andrea Stone
Jobs are scarce. Money is tight. A speedy economic recovery seems
unlikely. Yet none of
that has stopped the
Millennial Generation
from helping others.
Young adults who grew up
in the shadow of the
9/11 attacks and saw the
wreckage of Hurricane
Katrina are volunteering
at home and abroad in
record numbers. The
generation that learned
in school to serve as
well as to read and
write, the Millennials
were the first global
Internet explorers even
as they pioneered social
networking for favorite
causes at home.
"Community service is
part of their DNA. It's
part of this generation
to care about something
larger than themselves,"
says Michael Brown,
co-founder and CEO of
City Year, which places
young mentors in urban
schools. "It's no longer
keeping up with the
Joneses. It's helping
the Joneses."
Surveys show people born
between 1982 and 2000
are the most
civic-minded since the
generation of the 1930s
and 1940s, say Morley
Winograd and Michael
Hais, co-authors of
Millennial Makeover:
MySpace, YouTube, and
the Future of American
Politics.
Unlike culturally
polarized Baby Boomers
or cynical Gen-Xers,
this is "a generation of
activist doers," they
write.
"Other generations were
reared to be more
individualistic," Hais
says. "This civic
generation has a
willingness to put aside
some of their own
personal advancement to
improve society."
Michelle Trahey, a Penn
State marketing major,
has turned down three
job offers so she can
work for two years in a
New York City elementary
school as a Teach for
America corps member.
Trahey, 22, says friends
thought she was "crazy"
since many college
graduates can't find
jobs. Her parents
weren't pleased, either.
"My passion is helping
people and making a
difference," she says.
"This is the perfect
time for me not to focus
on business. … If I
don't do this now, I may
never have this
opportunity again."
Trahey is among 3,700
college graduates who
will join Teach for
America next fall.
Nearly 25,000 applied, a
37% increase over 2007
and the most since the
program began in 1990,
says spokeswoman Amy
Rabinowitz. Nearly every
government-funded
service program has seen
applications spike.
City Year, where monthly
stipends are about
$1,000, saw applications
triple last year.
Applications to the
Peace Corps, which sends
volunteers to work in
other countries, are up
16%. AmeriCorps, which
sends young adults into
schools, health clinics,
parks and other local
organizations, has three
applicants for every
slot.
The Corporation for
National and Community
Service, the federal
agency that oversees
Ameri Corps and other
programs, says volunteer
rates for ages 16-24
nearly doubled from 1989
through 2005, from 12.3%
to 23%.
Winograd says those are
the peak formative years
for Gen-Xers and
Millennials. He says it
was rare for those now
in their 30s and 40s to
perform community
service in high school.
More than 80% of
Millennials did it,
often because it was
required.
Although the volunteer
rate for young adults
declined to 21.9% in
2008, nearly three in
five 18- to 24-year-olds
surveyed by the Harvard
University Institute of
Politics said they were
interested in public
service. Statistics
compiled by the
Corporation for National
and Community Service,
which oversee AmeriCorps
and other programs, show
that college towns such
as Provo, Utah; Iowa
City and Madison, Wis.,
have among the country's
highest volunteer rates.
The United Way, which
was founded in 1887 to
raise money for
charities, opened campus
chapters in 2008. It
hopes to have 50 by next
year, many of them
offshoots of spring
break programs in which
students give up the
beach for projects
helping others.
Kathryn Yaros, a student
at University of
Michigan-Dearborn who is
a United Way team
leader, spent freshman
spring break helping
build a wheelchair ramp
so a paralyzed man could
leave his Detroit home.
This spring she worked
at a residential
treatment center for
troubled girls.
"Volunteering is not
such a casual thing
anymore. It's part of
our lifestyle," says
Yaros, 19. "Giving back
is our own way of being
empowered to create a
positive change within
the community."
Analysts cite several
reasons Millennials are
stepping up:
•The times. Just as the
Great Depression and
World War II shaped
their grandparents'
generation, Millennials
view the world through
the lens of 9/11, wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and the economic
meltdown.
"The events you grow up
with have a lot to do
with what a generation
focuses on," says Alan
Solomont, chairman of
the Corporation for
National and Community
Service. "This
generation grew up at a
time when there was a
need to pull together."
Hard times, says City
Year's Michael Brown,
produce "values
clarification."
• Global connections.
Because of the Internet,
social networking sites
such as Facebook, the
growth of study-abroad
programs and ethnic
diversity, the
Millennials are closely
attached to the world
and want to make it a
better place.
Whether it's teaching
English in China or
building a well in
Africa, Millennials are
"in tune" with global
needs, says Philip
Gardner of the
Collegiate Employment
Research Institute at
Michigan State
University. He says many
who study abroad — 70%
of students at four-year
colleges have traveled
outside the United
States — "get the bug to
go back internationally,
and one of the fastest
ways … is to do
volunteer projects."
Amanda MacGurn studied
in Belgium, taught
English in Chile and
interned with Doctors
Without Borders. Now 26,
the Southern Oregon
University graduate
leaves next month for
Romania to work for the
Peace Corps.
"I want to devote my
life to international
service work," says
MacGurn, who lives in
Eugene, Ore. "This is a
great opportunity to
serve both my country as
an ambassador and also
the international
community."
•Practicality. Required
to volunteer in high
school and encouraged by
colleges to keep it up,
Millennials responded to
Hurricane Katrina with
outcomes they could see.
Thousands spent their
college spring breaks on
the Gulf Coast where
they helped clear
debris, patch roofs and
rebuild homes after the
2005 storm.
Millennials don't want
to send money and forget
it, Solomont says. "They
want to get things done,
to fix things," he says.
Unlike Baby Boomers,
"They're not into
chasing their own
ideologies as much as
rolling up their sleeves
and improving things."
Emory University student
Maria Town, 21, who has
cerebral palsy, started
Alternative Life Cycles,
an organization to
provide retrofitted
bicycles for disabled
people, because she knew
how expensive her own
adapted recumbent
tricycle was. "I've
learned it's a full life
commitment that can be
more than just a hobby,"
says the Hammond, La.,
native. "It can be a
career."
•The Obama effect.
Millennial voters last
year preferred Barack
Obama 2 to 1. Many
embraced the former
community organizer's
call to service.
Online applications to
the Peace Corps spiked
175% in the days
surrounding his
inauguration, says
spokeswoman Laura
Lartigue.
"We are seeing a rebirth
of the kind of idealism
that we saw during the
Kennedy era" of the
1960s, when the Peace
Corps was founded, she
says, noting that the
average age of Peace
Corps volunteers is 27.
Obama's election was "a
signal that young people
really do matter," says
Roger Gu, 21, who will
work for Teach for
America in Los Angeles
after graduating from
Princeton University
this spring. "I don't
want to sound corny or
lame, but I believe
individuals can make a
difference," he says.
• Economic woes. A
miserable job market is
an added reason to
volunteer.
"When the economy is
downsizing full-pay job
opportunities, many are
looking at these stipend
and volunteer
opportunities as a good
alternative," says
Patrick Rooney of the
Center on Philanthropy
at Indiana University.
He says recent graduates
are more likely than
older adults to work for
little or no pay because
they have yet to start
families or take on
mortgages.
Rabinowitz of Teach for
America has sees a
change at student job
fairs. "We were going
head-to-head" with Wall
Street firms, she says.
Lately, "There's been
much less competition."
At 20, Colorado College
sophomore Eleanor
Mulshine hasn't chosen a
career, but she has
traveled to the Gulf
Coast twice to help with
hurricane recovery,
trekked to a village in
India to build compost
pits and worked on a New
Mexico farm that
promotes sustainable
agriculture. Between
classes in Colorado
Springs, she helps
refugees adapt to their
new home.
Mulshine says she
learned the value of
helping others from her
parents, who are
"heavily involved" in
their Washington, D.C.,
neighborhood.
"I'm trying to give
back," she says. "What
else would I do with my
spare time?"
