<p>Actually, I don’t think the phenomenon is as new as you all make it out to me. I remember my parents forcing me to volunteer at the hospital as a Candystriper because they thought it would look good on my college applications. (This would have been the early 80’s). I was pretty introverted and hated having to interact with strangers. I also spent about 4 hours a day practicing the piano and won a couple of competitions. I resented having to volunteer because it took away from my practice time. Can’t remember if anyone actually asked me about my volunteer experiences on a college interview, but if they did, I imagine I probably said something surly. </p>
<p>For the record, most of the other candystripers were also there for the resume boost. The exception was a couple of girls who actually became nurses. And I remember hearing later that the program actually became even worse when they opened it up to boys a few years later – The boys were extremely careerist about the whole thing, and competed for titles like “hospital volunteer of the year” and it became even more obvious that it was about people’s resumes and not helping the actual old or sick people.</p>