VOLUNTEERISM

Tips for Getting the Most from High School and College Students Who Volunteer

When Ashley Dennis, a charity official in Amherst, Mass., heard that a professor at a local university was urging his students to volunteer as part of a health course, she seized the opportunity.

Ms. Dennis, community outreach and development coordinator at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County, needed help with her charity's fund raising. So she contacted Dan Gerber, at the University of Massachusetts, who had assigned students in his personal-health course to give eight hours of their time to community service per semester. His goal, he says, is to show students that "being altruistic is good for you."

Ms. Dennis says Mr. Gerber was intrigued by her interest in enlisting his students to work as fund raisers.

"We really struggle to meet our budget every year," she says, "and he understood that a student could learn a lot, not just from giving their time, but also sharing their time to raise money to support an organization."

Ms. Dennis got the students to participate in the charity's annual fund-raising event, which uses volunteers to solicit funds from donors who sponsor them in a bowling competition. Before Big Brothers started getting help from the students three years ago, the event had brought in less than $25,000 per year. But revenue grew as students participated, and by last year, the bowling event brought in more than $40,000, due in part to the creativity of 121 volunteers from Mr. Gerber's course, who found many different ways to raise the $60 each required to participate in the event. "Selling cookies door-to-door late night in the dorms -- that was very successful," she says.

Young volunteers like these are among an increasing number of high-school and college students completing volunteer service as part of their academic requirements. Last year, 24.1 percent of people ages 16 to 24 volunteered, up from 21.9 percent in 2002, says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the most recent figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, 83 percent of public high schools had students who participated in school-sanctioned community-service activities; many of those students were volunteering as a requirement for graduation. Campus Compact, an organization that encourages colleges to integrate learning and volunteerism, found that in 2003, 69 percent of colleges and universities give academic credit for "service learning," formal programs in which volunteerism complements classroom learning, up from 59 percent in 2002.

Proponents of student volunteerism say such experiences foster an increase in personal and social responsibility in students, as well as better grades and test scores in their school courses. Charities benefit by getting the services of young volunteers, but they also face challenges, because young volunteers often do not have much experience in a professional setting and require more supervision.

Educators and charity managers who work with student volunteers offer the following ideas for overcoming those challenges.

Give as well as take. Schools and colleges do not require students to volunteer solely to provide nonprofit groups with manpower. Volunteering is meant to be a learning opportunity. That means charity managers should expect to play the role of teacher, says Glen Baumgart, director of the Volunteer and Service Learning Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Student volunteers may need a little TLC compared to a general volunteer," says Mr. Baumgart. When students volunteer as part of a service-learning course, their charity supervisors should monitor their work to make sure they are learning the appropriate things, he says. "Agencies need to say, 'If we have 15 volunteers and 10 of them are from an English course and 5 of them are from a criminology course, they're here for different reasons. They're here to observe different things, and we should be ready to assist with that instruction, '" he says. "There's a difference between courses; there's a difference between student volunteers and general volunteers. And I think agencies that understand that have really successful interactions."

Don't skimp on training. High-school and college students may have had limited working experience before volunteering, so their supervisors might need to show students how to act like professionals.

Ms. Dennis, who assigns students to address and stuff envelopes for holiday mailing appeals, says she has had to correct shortcuts that her young volunteers have tried to take. For example, some students tried to inappropriately abbreviate addresses of potential donors when sending holiday appeals. Other students neglected to show up for scheduled volunteering sessions. "We've been learning as we go the better ways to work with them in those issues," Ms. Dennis says. "It's just a matter of anticipating what shortcuts they may see and letting them know in advance that those are not OK. I think in working with volunteers, one of the most important things is the more information I can give them, the better they're able to help me."

Other organizations have a more established orientation for young volunteers. Students from the University of Texas at Austin, and high schools in and around the college town, recruit other volunteers for Equality Knocks, a project sponsored by the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas's charitable arm, the Calkin Fund. The students work the phones in three-hour blocks, the first 45 minutes of which is a training session, says Chuck Smith, who oversees volunteers at the Austin organization. Students, he says, are briefed about who they will be calling and the goals of the effort. "There is a prepared script, which we go over and emphasize what parts of the script are mandatory or can be ad-libbed or altered, and what the primary message points are in the script," he says. "And then part of the training involves them role playing before they actually make live calls." Supervisors, he notes, also assist students while they are working the phone banks and step in when the volunteers veer too far from their scripts.

Spell out students' responsibilities and managers' expectations. "Organizations need to have definitions of what volunteers do," says Jenny Girard, director of community-service programs at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, in San Francisco, where students are required to complete 100 hours of community service to graduate. "They need to have job descriptions for all volunteers. Young people will respond to one point-person. They'll respond to understanding what's required of them."

One tool that has prevented problems for students and organizations, says Mr. Baumgart, is a contract that a student and his or her supervisor can fill out together at the beginning of a volunteerism relationship. The contract Mr. Baumgart uses, he says, is adapted from one recommended by Darrol Bussler, a professor of education at Minnesota State University at Mankato.

"It has two columns, and as they go through it, they answer on the same topic," he says. "So the organization writes in their mission statement, then the student checks the box that says, 'I understand the mission statement.'"

The contract covers how many hours a student is supposed to volunteer, what the volunteer duties will be, how the supervisor will make sure the student is learning from the experience, and other relevant details. Because the student and manager both fill out the contract, Mr. Baumgart says, each has an opportunity to discuss or clarify aspects of the volunteering arrangement -- and can spot and discuss differences in their expectations right away.

Appeal to the audience. Charities that can fulfill a particular student desire or interest are much more attractive to young volunteers, say educators. For example, at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, students walk dogs, pet cats, and assist with "adoption Saturdays," at the nearby Second Chance Animal Sanctuary. Some professors of a mandatory freshman course that teaches study skills and other ways to get the most out of college require their students to volunteer, says Alice Lanning, director of freshman programs. Students often choose Second Chance, she says, because it gives them contact with pets they can't have in their dormitories.

Nonprofit groups can also exploit teenage fads to attract volunteers. At North Carroll High School, in Hampstead, Md., students are sewing and knitting to fulfill some of the 75 service hours that every high-school student in the state must complete before graduating. Judy Walter, a North Carroll teacher, is coordinator of the Carroll County chapter of Project Linus, a national organization with headquarters in Bloomington, Ill., that arranges the donation of homemade blankets to sick or grieving children. Mrs. Walter, who teaches family and consumer science, presented Project Linus to her students as a service opportunity, and those who were interested in sewing and knitting jumped at the chance. Eventually, a Project Linus Club started at the school.

Mrs. Walter says that being trendy didn't hurt her cause. "For some reason, in our school and across the country this year, knitting and crocheting have really taken off with teenagers," she says. "A bunch of kids on athletic teams would carry around their knitting needles and yarn, and they'd knit before the game."

Be flexible Make an effort to offer volunteering opportunities that fit into busy student schedules, say Ms. Girard. "You're not going to get kids if the only time they can volunteer is Monday through Friday, 9 to 5," she says. Charities that have needs on weekends or evenings may be more accessible to students, she suggests.

Look to the future. Managers who work with student volunteers overwhelmingly say they are worth any extra trouble because a young person is likely to continue a relationship with a charity through the years and can encourage others to donate their time or money.

For instance, Ms. Dennis says she thinks Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County will see an increase in volunteers because of the students' enthusiasm for the bowling event. "At the end of their bowling session, they're walking out of there grinning from ear to ear," she says. "And they're going to walk away telling other people about it, that they had a really good time with Big Brothers Big Sisters. They're going to remember us. They're going back onto campus with a really positive impression, and taking away really good PR for us. And maybe they'll even become big brothers and big sisters next."

Do you have any tips to share for recruiting or supervising volunteers from local high schools and colleges? Share them in the Volunteerism online forum.