Is it just me or are the blogs requiring more and more. The first few asked us to look to our opinions in our world and the world, but the past few have looked to a bit more analytical thought. In reference to week’s one blog, I can now see how the purpose is going to be fulfilled. When I look at my proposed project to alleviate the problem of lack of involvement I did not know how easy it would be find statistics to support my theory and reasons for instituting such a program. I was totally aware that I was not alone in my view or in my efforts to “fix the world” but I was unaware of some interesting things that add to the total “volunteering” initiative. There is a National Youth Service Day as well as a Global Youth Service Day, both of which are on the days of April 15-17. The goals of both events are to “Mobilize youth to identify and address the needs of their communities through service; to Support youth on a life-long path of service and civic engagement; to educate the public, the media, and policymakers about the year-round contributions of young people as community leaders.” Though these goals do not all directly correlate, they have basically the same ideology behind their efforts. Though I may not articulate them as such, I believe that many of the goals of the event are under the fundamental idea of helping others and bettering yourself. When my project was critiqued, many of my fellow Xavierites looked at the issue of what was determined community service and what was not. From personal experiences, I can testify that I know that people have claimed nonsensical things as community service or volunteer work and gotten away with it. The types of projects I had in mind are ones like those that will be performed on April 15- 17. Some example are as follows. Boise State University students enrolled in a literature class focused on Chicano/a culture will partner with two university student groups to plan and implement “Celebrating Diverse Communities through Literature” at the Hispanic Cultural Center to increase awareness of Chicano/a literature. Students will conduct information sessions, readings and discussions for high school students, teachers, librarians, and community members to make Chicano/a a valued part of American life and culture. This project emphasizes the issue of ignorance that getting involved could help fix. These young people are learning about a culture that does not necessarily concern them and if it does they are furthering others knowledge about that culture.
Getting involved is not always short-term and can start a beneficial cycle rather than one that foster unproductive activity. Volunteering is up 12 percent over the last 10 years: 74.2 percent of college freshman volunteered their last year of high school in 1998, versus 62 percent in 1989. Only 21.3 percent reported service-learning graduation requirements. (UCLA/Higher Education Research Institute Annual Freshmen Survey, 1999). In my addressing the issue and determining a project there was a division into a category for high school students as well as college students. For high school students 59.3% (13.3 million teenagers ages 12-17) volunteer, versus 49% of the adult population over the same time period. Teens say they volunteer an average of 3.5 hours per week versus the adult average of 4.2 hours. (Independent Sector/Gallup, 1996). This brought about a question in my mind. If my reasoning was right about the net benefit yielded when mandating involvement was true why did we not see the benefits on as great a scale. After evaluating the different situations I found a possible answer. Consistency is the X-factor. Thought there are young people active, there is not enough. A startling realization was come to in my research that the majority (93%) of America’s 60 million young people believe they can make a difference in their communities, but fewer than one in five civic organizations across the nation are involving young people extensively in their work. (Do Something Young People’s Involvement Survey /Princeton Survey Research, 1998) Although the number of school districts with community service requirements for students has doubled over past decade from 13% to 30% (USDED, 1999) there still not enough consistency. Honestly, all the high schools that I know of that require community service are in suburban areas, areas that are not at the highest need level. While the students in the ‘suburban’ area are volunteer out of pure necessity there is little to no involvement by those who need it; they are not taking proactive steps that they are capable of making. On the college level, the project that I had in mind seems to be growing rapidly. 10,800 faculty taught at least one service-learning course, and 11,800 service-learning courses were offered at Compact member schools. The number of college students involved in service learning increased 3,663% in past decade from 81,000 to 2,967,000. (USDED, 1999). I am currently enrolled in my second course allowing for service learning and this is my second semester of college.
Statistics have proven that a cycle of caring conscious adults result from active young people. In respect to my previous statistics, 72% of young adults say they have donated money, clothes, or food to a community or church organization in the past couple of years. (Center for Democracy & Citizenship, 2002). The community service, volunteering efforts have come to the surface, in my eyes, in the past decade or so. Those young individuals that volunteered then are still giving back. The personal profit is present when volunteering. Absenteeism dropped during service-learning projects as well as helping students develop socially, morally and emotionally. It increased students’ self-worth, competence, commitment and the sense that they can make a difference. Service-learning can help turn around troubled schools while providing much-needed services to communities in which service-learning activities take place. (www.ecs.org/clearinghouse)
If it already is not apparent, the ideas that intent of my project is more than feasible and in action in some places. If we, as a society could rid ourselves of the X- factor we might be able to obtain the ideal results to the max.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 27th, 2005 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Project Progress, Week 07: Research Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.