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UW JOURNAL OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT ISSUE 1 | APRIL 2009

VOLUNTEERISM ON CAMPUS: ONE STUDENT’S OPTIMISTIC PERSPECTIVE

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By Alyssa Vande Leest Photos by Jeff Miller

ome call it unconstitutional. Others have gone as far as to call it slavery. But University of Wisconsin-Madison sophomore Zack Zaban isn’t so critical. To him, the only thing to call President Obama’s plan to require 100 hours of community service from college students is “really cool.”

Apparently, many involved in promoting volunteerism and service learning on the UW campus agree. Zaban says changes are being made across campus to ensure that volunteer services become more accessible to students as demand increases. For example, the Morgridge Center joined with the School of Human Ecology this March, changing its affiliation from academic affairs to student services. Zaban says the merger will allow the Morgridge Center to become more involved in service learning.

Zaban’s optimism is founded on experience. As the Campus Outreach Intern at the Morgridge Center for Public Service, the nucleus of student volunteering on We’ll actually be integrated into the UW the UW campus, Zaban spends considersystem,” Zaban able of time says. “I think that “I think there definitely is a working both will definitely have for and with general trend toward increaing an impact on how student volunwe connect and service and helping the teers. outreach to with

comunity out.”

Zaban feels that - Zack Zaban the students he works with have become more enthusiastic about volunteerism in the last year. “I think there definitely is a general trend toward increasing service A UW student volunteers at an after school program and helping the community out,” Zaban says. Zaban doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence Trends in Civic Engagement that this trend became evident around the same time that Barack Obama began to talk about the necessity of giving back to our country through community Morgridge Center SoHE Merger service. He sees the increasing popularity of volunteerism as the direct result of the Obama administration’s emphasis Obama announces American on service, and says he expects volunteer Opportunity Tax Credit rates to continue to rise throughout the President’s time in office. “I definitely think that the drive toward Volunteer Opportunities: volunteering and helping out in the comWhere to look munity is going to increase and it’ll be sustained in the next year, two years three years,” Zaban says. Conference on Civic Engagement

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students.” This change could be the beginning of many that the university would need to make to accommodate the surge in demand for resources that would likely occur if Obama’s plan for required community service in college was put into action. Zaban acknowledges that supporting this level of student engagement would not be an easy task.

“If Obama’s plan goes through, something that might be a little bit of a struggle is operationally putting it into place,” Zaban says. He adds that communication would need to be improved and materials would need to be updated, but thinks the end result would be worth the work. “Once the system is put into place and they work out the kinks it has the potential to be something great,” Zaban says.

WISCONSIN CENTER for civic engagement