Hello-
My name is Jen Gilbride and I am a graduate assistant in Student
Affairs at the College of William and Mary. One of my tasks is to
conduct a study of the amount of community service that is being done
on this campus. The results will be used as part of an assessment of
volunteerism for the Office of Volunteer Services. We are phone
surveying a randomly sampled portion of the student body. However, we
are running into some difficulty in terms of getting a good
definition of community service that will be given to the students at the
beginning of the phone survey. We would like to get at a broad
definition that could include independent volunteering in community
agencies as well as participation in community projects as a result of a
service-learning component of a class. Do you have any suggestions
for a good definition of community service?
My last qyestion is in regards to good studies that have been done
on the demographics of college students involved in community
service. Our study is being included as part of my master's
project. I have set out to try to answer the question of who is
doing community service on campuses. I am finding little information
in terms of who is doing service. There is a lot of information on
motives for service and types of service. But does anyone know
of any good references or studies that look at who is doing service?
I would appreciate the help!
Thanks very much!
Jen Gilbride