LYNN GROSSMAN, a writer in Manhattan who is married to the actor Bob Balaban, comes from a long line of social activists. Her mother joined the civil rights movement, and she herself marched in protest of the Vietnam War. But she said that things had changed by the time her eldest daughter, Mariah, now 27, came of age.
Hazel is at the leading edge of a generation whose sense of community involvement was born four years ago on Sept. 11, 2001. The attacks spurred an unprecedented outpouring of donations and volunteerism from Americans. Since then teenagers have witnessed the deadly Florida hurricane season of 2004, the more than 150,000 killed by the tsunami in Asia last December, and now Katrina. Encouraged by an increasing number of high schools with community service requirements and further motivated by college admissions offices looking for reasons to choose one honor student over another, teenagers are embracing social activism with the zeal of missionaries and the executive skills of seasoned philanthropists. Not only are more students participating, educators say, the scale of ambition seems to be continually increasing.
GREGORY PYKE, the senior associate dean of admission at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., said that one recent applicant had started a Web-based initiative to collect eyeglasses—thousands of pairs—to be passed along to the needy in underprivileged countries. Another created a large-scale program to collect and refurbish discarded computers before passing them along to the poor. “The number of discussions where a dean is pulling us aside and saying, ‘You have to hear about what this kid has done’ has also gone up,” he said.
Educators, sociologists and parents explain the outpouring of youthful philanthropy by noting that this generation has been bombarded not only by bad news, all of which seems to demand an immediate response, but by calls to action from political leaders and celebrities. Disaster relief, unlike opposition to the Vietnam War, which stirred many in their parents’ generation, is uncontroversial and encourages wide-scale participation. And once roused, young people have greater tools at their disposal, particularly the Internet, to expand projects.
More than 82 percent of high school seniors performed volunteer work, according to the 2004 American Freshman survey, a nationwide poll conducted by a graduate division of the University of California, Los Angeles, compared with just over 74 percent a decade earlier, and 66 percent in 1989.
The Collegiate Challenge program run by Habitat for Humanity in which students spend a week of their summer building housing for the poor in cities throughout the nation, has grown twelve-fold since it started in 1989, said Alynn Woodson, the manager. It has seen a 30 percent growth in participation by high school students in the last two years. “In some ways service has gotten to be kind of a trendy thing to do,” Ms. Woodson said.
Katrina is the cause of the moment, and students across the country have responded like seasoned aid workers. By Sept. 2, four days after the storm came ashore in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, students at Westside High School in Houston had raised more than $16,000 for the American Red Cross.
That same day, students at Boiling Springs High School in South Carolina collected 6,000 gallons of bottled water. “We’re not very good at our football, but it’s been said by rival football teams, ‘Whenever it comes to things that matter, Boiling Springs always gets the job done,’ “said Jessica Gregg, 17, the student body president.
BUT even increased basic requirements do not seem to account for the grandiosity of initiatives on the part of many teenagers, educators say. “It’s kind of intimidating to see what some kids have done,” Mr. Walker said. In Owings Mills, Md., two high school freshman, Greg Becker and Michael Swirnow, exceeded the McDonogh School’s 40-hour community service requirement by doing 500 hours. Starting when they were 14, the boys set out to raise money to build a house for a struggling family in Baltimore through Habitat for Humanity.
“Sometimes, doing everything you can isn’t enough,” said Greg, who initiated the effort. Through meetings with executives at various foundations and a raffle that raised $42,000 (a Mini Cooper was the top prize), the students collected $88,000.
Such examples of over-the-top public service can put a competitive pressure on other families who believe colleges are watching. For those who have yet to fall into line with the trend, the anxieties can be great. “I’ve had three families come in today saying, ‘What is this community service thing?’ “said Howard Greene, a private college admissions consultant in Manhattan.
Mr. Bock noted that his college put a high premium on public service: it highlights Swarthmore students’ antigenocide initiatives in Sudan alongside its main features on its Web home page. Two weeks ago Mr. Bock watched a colleague ask nearly 400 freshman at an orientation seminar how many had done community service projects in high school.
Katherine Cohen, a college admissions consultant who has discussed community service with many high school students in Manhattan, noted that admitting such candidates was in the colleges’ self-interest. “Colleges love to see fund-raisers, of course,” Ms. Cohen said. “Ding-ding-ding, the bell goes off, because they want to see money raised in the future” for their own endowments.
Several educators said that it didn’t really matter in the end whether teenagers were expending effort out of self-interest or altruism so long as good deeds were done. Some level of self-interest, after all, is why kids read books and do homework.