NY Times: A Better Society? Or a Better Resume

Parents Social Lounge
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"The community service boom began a while back and it looked right and felt real," said Bruce J. Poch, vice president and dean of admissions at Pomona College in California. "Now it's devolved into a lot of kids just punching a ticket. It turns my stomach a little bit."</p>

<p>Perhaps. But sometimes society stumbles in the right direction for the wrong reasons, said Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University ...</p>

<p>Students become hip to this game. Many possess genuine humanitarian impulses, and tens of thousands work in all matter of good causes. But the emphasis on official, college-certified ?community service? strikes even some of the most committed teenagers as almost beside the point...</p>

<p>Lucy Stewart, 18, a senior at Montclair High School, has worked in inner-city Newark for the past four years, helping abused and neglected children with their homework, and reading them stories and providing good company. Hers is a family that stresses such service ? her older brother volunteers in an animal shelter ? and she notes the value of exposing even the most jaded student to community service.</p>

<p>But she's aware of a self-conscious aspect to the work.</p>

<p>"I'd be lying if I said it doesn't mean something on a college application," she said. "I would only say that you really can tell the difference between those who are passionate and those who are doing it to put it on their resume."</p>

<p>Mention this to Mr. Poch, the vice president at Pomona College, and he makes much the same argument: that a good admissions counselor can divine true passion. But in the next breath he issues a guilty plea for his peer group, the college admissions community. "Look, there's no doubt that we in the highly selective colleges have done this to the world, and we've killed a lot of the joy in being a student," he said...

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<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/weekinreview/25powell.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/weekinreview/25powell.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Yup....there is a big industry who arrange summer junkets for high school kids.</p>

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<p>*, I see that a student has also posted this NYT article in the Admissions Forum. I'll be interested to see how the students react, too.</p>

<p>There was some similar commentary in the SF Chron about this, about a year ago I think (or less), which I also posted. It seems that given these 2 articles, admissions folks are looking twice at these trips. One of my students and one good friend have spent many summers & breaks doing this, but in their cases, their efforts were related to their major academic interests, & they admit to enjoying these trips immensely. In the case of these 2 students, one side benefit (& also a rationale) has been improvement in the foreign language! </p>

<p>My former student will be practicing medicine (hopefully) in CA. With its huge hispanic population, her trips South of the Border have helped her directly with cultural-anthro understanding, economic awareness, and vocabulary/conversation. (That's on top of the actual group efforts at improving 3rd World economic lot, from the ground up: an exciting opportunity for these enterprising young people.) In the case of the 2nd student, she similarly will get an add'l shot at learning a 2nd Asian language after the 1st one she's been taking in high school. </p>

<p>bottom line: I think it's important for students to be honest on their apps, regarding their motives. No need to apologize or pretend you're just Helping Others when you're also helping yourself (toward your college <em>academic major</em>, toward post-college <em>career</em> if those are factors).</p>

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<p>I don't mind if kids feel forced to do a little community service. A few will discover passions they didn't know they had. Some will have a greater understanding of the less fortunate. Others will learn that there's always time to find time for volunteer work on top of a busy life. And a few will just do it for their resumes. On the whole the benefits way outweigh the negatives.</p>

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<p>Well said, mathmom. D's community service interests originated with a need to accumulate community service hours for NHS and Beta Club at her hs. She volunteered at our church with an after school program for at-risk kids and continued after her commitment was met because the kids had touched her heart. While at her college, she has continued in similar pursuits and one of her "dream jobs" would involve establishing and running museum education programs for at risk children. I feel fairly certain that without the stimulus of the service hour requirements for the clubs, she never would have put herself out there for others in this way.</p>

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<p>S2's HS requires 60 hours of community service as a graduation requirement. I think this is a good thing. It shows kids they CAN find the time to volunteer and brings them into contact with helping others, which can lead to more than 60 hours and sense of what it means to give.</p>

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<p>If they are surrounded by community service, they will assimilate it or the concept will assimilate into them. I am glad school's are making it a graduation requirement. Many kids seem to use it in high school for resumes and some are actually interested in helping out.</p>

<p>Eventually with a good education, good role models, most will serve their communities in some form or fashion at one time or another. Really, the service is usually two-sided, of interest to the participant and of use to someone else. That is the best type. Once you get the hang of it, it may become a way of life.</p>

<p>My son was so involved with his music in high school that he was able to get his community service "points" by playing in bi-communal, multi-cultural groups etc. So he fit music into his service. </p>

<p>In college the spirit now moves him: he is developing his sense of community and sought a public service internship this summer which he got. He'll be working with law enforcement and lawyers and people on the other side of the bars. </p>

<p>Maybe most high schoolers aren't yet ready to take that sort of leap. With the right role models though, a few more years, more maturity, it can take off.</p>

<p>So when I work with high schoolers now on public service projects and I prod them onwards and upwards, I see that I am only extending a part of the ladder to true public service.</p>

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<p>Kids are still serving the community no matter what their original motivation for doing it is. Community service is a good thing for society--trash all over my neighborhood, children without mentors, local organizations struggling to survive all bother me more than kids fixing those things without the purest of goals. </p>

<p>My private school required seniors to do eighty hours of community service at a single approved organization during the month of May, culminating in a large project. Many students ended up doing grunt work: some enjoyed it, some didn't. I had a great experience and ended up getting a fantastic summer job as a result. Most people I know who do community service enjoy it and do it because they believe in the efforts of the organization.</p>

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<p>No doubt, for many kids the volunteering thing is either a requirement or an ec they do only to look good on a resume. Still, for kids, I think there are residual effects from such experiences. They DO get to see how the other side lives, and are exposed to very real issues. And I think there's no reason NOT to think that many will continue community involvement -- at whatever level -- way past college.</p>

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<p>Interesting - in light of the view that some here have previously stated with regard to Asian students not being as "committed" to volunteer work or merely doing it to pump up their resumes.</p>

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<p>The only folks who are required to do community service other than high schools students are convicts.</p>

<p>Don't think they don't notice. </p>

<p>Both my kids did literally thousands of hours of community service, and literally not a single hour for purposes of their college applications or because of a high school requirement.</p>

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<p>you home schooled. You made your own req.</p>

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<p>And none of them were for community service.</p>

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<p>I told my son I thought he ought to do some community service, because I knew there would be a big blank on his application otherwise. He went along with the idea, and ended up really enjoying it. I don't think it matters that it wasn't his idea or his passion to start with. He learned from it and he got to meet another part of our community. He didn't write any heartfelt essays about it, but another kid might have.</p>

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<p>While I love the idea of my D's involvement in community service projects, the reality is, until she has a driver's license, it's just another logistical nightmare for mom.</p>

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<p>I take the admittedly iconoclastic view that the greatest service a man can do his community is to do his job well and pay his taxes. If he wants to do more community service he should take a second job.</p>

<p>Some of these kids padding their resumes will come away the better for it I guess, but others probably ought to be visiting their own Grandma in the nursing home rather than reading to someone else grandma in a community service program.</p>