David Jordan

Professor Presnell

English 1103

25 Nov. 2011

Community Service: Growth and Effects on the “9/11 Generation”

Community service has played a major role in my life and I truly believe that I have

become the person I am today in part because I have involved myself with community service. I

got my start in community service at a very young age while growing up in a small town Baptist

church. Every summer the church I attended would send a group of people to some remote town

to do missions work because that is a Christian duty, to go forth and spread God's word. I wanted

to be able to go and do the same and eventually I did. After my first mission trip, my passion for

helping people grew immensely and to this day, I have continued to try and help out my fellow

man, not only because I feel that it is my duty as a Christian, but because I feel that it is my duty

as a human being.

Over the course of this past month, I have researched about community service.

Originally I was looking into what community service is at its basic principle, but my research

revealed that it has numerous basic principles because it is not a stably defined word, it is

different from culture to culture, from person to person, and from year to year. Because of this I

changed what I was searching for and decided to focus on my generation, the "9/11 Generation,"

and how community service is directly effecting our lives.

American Community Service

Today, Americans from all walks of life donate countless hours of their time to a variety

of volunteer initiatives; Housewives hold bake sales to raise money that will fund a community

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Figure 1: Adult Volunteer Rate (16 +)

(1974 to 2005) (US 2)

garden, churches host free clinics that provide medical services for the homeless, and schools

raise money to help fund breast cancer research. However, Americans haven't always been so

eager to volunteer, in fact community service used to be taboo. Community service as defined by

the Oxford English Dictionary is "a court order that a convicted offender perform a stipulated

number of hours of unpaid work for the community or an individual." This definition shows that

modern day community service is drastically different from the community service of yesterday.

As more and more Americans jump the community service bandwagon it will continue to evolve

gaining a larger force and becoming a greater part in all of our lives.

Evolution Since 1974

Adult community service involvement was first documented by the Current Population

Survey (CPS) that was administered in 1974 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The same survey was

administered again in 1989 and in 2005. This survey defines "adult volunteer" as "someone age

16 and older who did work through an organization in the past 12 months for which they were

not paid" (US 4). Figure 1 shows the adult

volunteer

rate between 1974 and 2005. The

involvement rate dropped from 23.6 percent

in 1974 to 20.4 percent in 1989, but it has

recovered and is at a 30 year high with 27

percent of Americans volunteering in 2005.

The volunteer rate can further be

divided into volunteer rate by age group

which is shown in Figure 2.

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Dividing the volunteer

rate up this way reveals

that volunteerism of all

age groups is at an all

time high with ages 16-19

having the largest growth

at 28.4 percent.

To further analyse the

data of volunteer rates, it is necessary to look at what type of organizations Americans are

volunteering at. Figure 3 shows the breakdown of volunteering by organization.

Americans volunteer through religious institutions the most at 36 percent. However, volunteering

through educational institutions grew the most from 1989 to 2005.

What is the Catalyst?

Figure 2: Volunteer Rate (all age groups) (1974 to 2005) (US 5)

Figure 3: Adult Volunteering By Type of Organization

(1989 vs. 2005) (US 3)

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In 1974, community service involvement was modest. Between 1974 and 1989 service

involvement decreased. By 2005, community service involvement had not only returned to

where it was in 1974, but it reached a 30 year high. The growth of community service between

1989 and 2005 is attributed to the catastrophes of the new millennium; the 9/11 terrorist attacks;

the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004; Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina, and Rita; and the cycle of

droughts, wildfires, and landslides that are plaguing the mid west (US Volunteer Growth in

America A review of Trends Since 1974, 4). All of these disasters set off a domino effect that

created a need for more charities and nonprofits. The Urban Institute's National Center on

Charitable Statistics noted that between 1989 and 2005, the amount of charities doubled (Boris

1-35).

The“9/11 Generation”: A Generation of Change

"One fateful morning, the world changed. A decade on, a generation of young people have

grown up with the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11th 2001. As children, some oblivious,

some acutely aware of the unfolding drama, they saw and have lived in a world transformed by these

events. They cannot remember nor imagine a world without it ("emel")."

I found that the generation that has been most affected by the new millennium disasters

has been given the title "9/11 Generation" because the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks is the most

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Figure 4: "9/11 Generation"

significant disaster of their time. Because the "9/11 Generation" has been most affected, it is also

the generation that is being affected most by the community service boom.

The term "9/11 Generation" was first coined by The University of Texas at Austin

professor Patricia Somers. Somers defines this term as college students who after witnessing the

9/11 Terrorist Attacks wanted to become more civically involved. However, Newsweek defines

the "9/11 Generation" as "children who watched the tragedy unfold [who] are now on the brink

of adulthood" (pg. 1). In other words, the "9/11 Generation" is the children, currently ages 16-19,

who were in grade school during the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, who are now transitioning from high

school to college; this synthesized definition will become the new focus.

Why is the "9/11 Generation" Different?

Imagine that community service involvement is a river composed up of water molecules

(young adults) which have been steadily flowing (volunteering) for decades. Suddenly plate

tectonics (9/11 Terrorist Attacks or the catalyst) uplifts the mountain slope that the river is

flowing down increasing the discharge of the river causing more and more water molecules (the

"9/11 Generation) to move at past a certain point (volunteer) at the same time. This increased

discharge causes a higher erosion rate on the river's banks. An increased rate of erosion changes

the river's banks (the perception that outsiders have of community service) which directly effects

how the river flows (how the "9/11 Generation" volunteers).

What are the changes? Well, the changes I found are vast, but the most significant of

these changes are that colleges are now looking for community service as a determining factor

for admissions, students are now transitioning into college with a different mentality about doing

community service.

A Better Community or a Better Resume?

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High school guidance counselors are now recommending that high school students

perform community service because colleges are now looking at community service as a

determining factor for admissions. Figure 5 shows that community service ranked in the top 4

most important factors to consider for college admissions (Elbaor 1).

The Growth of Community Service and its Effects on the 9/11 Generation survey showed that 74

percent of high school academic clubs required that community service be done to remain in

good standings, Figure 6. Involvement in these academic clubs is the 3rd most important deciding

factor for college admissions. 81 percent of high school seniors polled by the Higher Education

Research Institute reported volunteering during their senior year (Marks 307).

With every passing second, more clubs are requiring community service, more guidance

counselors are recommending that community service be done, and more colleges are looking for

Figure 5: The Most Important Factors for College Admissions (Elbaor 9)

Figure 6: Community Service Requirements in High School Clubs

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community service to set applicants apart. This pressure to do community service can't have

positive effects on the "9/11 Generation" as they transition from high school to college.

The majority of the 2000 students polled by the Higher Education Research Institute

suggested that their volunteering was "episodic or contextually driven-- not so much a deeply

motivated value-oriented choice as an occasional activity that personal circumstances may

dictate, encourage, support, or deter" (Marks 307). This response showed me that community

service is no longer about helping your community, but is now about building your resume in

hopes of getting into a good college.

A Culture of Volunteerism

The "9/11 Generation" was motivated by the disasters of the new millennium to change

the world through volunteering. However, external factors have drastically impaired our ability

to change the world. We no longer do community service to help out our fellow American, but

instead do it to stay in good standing with our clubs, to please our guidance counselors, and to

get into a good college. Community service is not longer a force for good, but a force of greed

and selfishness. We have been transformed into a generation racking up hours on a slip of paper.

"Perhaps. But sometimes society stumbles in the right direction for the wrong reasons" states

Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard

University (Powell WK1). Are we going in the right direction or did we lose ourselves in the

chaotic rapid changes of the new millennium?

Works Cited Page

Borget, Jennifer. "A generation shaped by 9/11." Your News Now [Austin] 10 September 2011,

n. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2011 <http://austin.ynn.com/content/mobile_news/280391/a-

generation-shaped-by-9-11>.

Boris, Elizabeth T. (2006). Organizations in a Democracy: Varied Rolesand Responsibilities. In

E.T. Boris & C.E. Steuerle (eds), Nonprofits and Government Collaboration and Conflict

(pg. 1-35). Washington, DC: Urban Institutes Press.

"Community service." The Oxford English Dictionary. Third edition, September 2009; online

version September 2011. <http://www.oed.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/view/Entry/37337>;

accessed 27 November 2011.

Elbaor, James. "Community Service and College Admissions Study." Ripple Kids. 2010. Web.

14 Nov. 2011.

Marks, Helen M., and Susan Robb Jones. "Community Service in the Transition: Shifts And

Continuities In Participation From High School To College."Journal of Higher

Education 75.3 (2004): 307-339. JSTOR Arts & Sciences I. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

"Meet the 9/11 generation." emel. September 2011: n. page. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.

<http://www.emel.com/article?id=89&a_id=2469>.

Powell, Michael. "A Better Society? Or a Better Résumé?." New York Times [New York ] March

2007, The New York WK1. Print.

The Growth of Community Service and its Effects on the 9/11 Generation. Conducted by David

S Jordan. 07 Nov. 2011-14 Nov. 2011.

US. Corporation for National and Community Service. Volunteer Growth in America A review

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of Trends Since 1974. Robert Grimm, Dietz, Nathan, Foster-Bey, John . Washington,

D.C.: GPO, 2006.

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