By Sean Leviashvili

Her friends keep insisting she take a break to eat, but Amanda Parker is more concerned with feeding the 4-year-olds surrounding her than acknowledging her empty stomach. She’s checking in on the other volunteers and replenishing the empty snack bowls as if it is a compulsion. She’s pacing across the linoleum floor at City Year Headquarters in Roxbury where the community service event she spent more than six months organizing is being held. Her blue eyes scan the same room every 30 seconds, reassuring herself, if only for that moment, that everything is running smoothly. Parker, a 2008 alumna of Northeastern who was a senior human services major last spring when this event took place, organized this publicized event for Jumpstart, a Boston based non-profit organization that focuses on educating pre-school aged children. She managed all of the logistics for the event, entitled “Jumpstart for a Day,” from handling food orders to seeking out child-appropriate entertainment and selecting a location. She looked at more than 10 different locations before deciding on the City Year Headquarters, she said. “The whole planning process has been pretty overwhelming,” she said, as she lined up chairs for the guests. She pauses, realigns a chair and takes a breath – a quick breath. Jumpstart was an integral part of Parker’s college life, she said. Many of the other students she volunteered with were her closest friends, Parker said, and the organization presented her with a platform to test-drive her plans for the future. Parker, like some of the faculty members at Northeastern, said she feels community service and service-learning programs should be further implemented into the university’s curriculum. For a long time, students at Northeastern have not been known for volunteering, she said. Students are still not involved in community service, but Sara DeRitter, assistant director and program coordinator for Northeastern’s Center of Community Service, said the numbers are growing. It’s hard to measure volunteerism and the amount of community service being done by students, DeRitter said, because the idea of community service is broad, and surveys may not include all forms of it. However, in an attempt to include more forms of community service on campus, Northeastern has taken steps during the past few years to integrate community service on campus, she said. Service programs at Northeastern are continually gaining attention and financial support, DeRitter said. The directors from the College of Arts and Sciences and the University Honors Program have co-developed service programs with DeRitter for first-year students. Also, service opportunities, especially one-time opportunities, offered to undergraduates have increased in popularity. More student organizations are focusing on working with the greater Boston community, she said. Some other student volunteers are interested in creating new programs, collaborating with others and maybe even making new friends. Motivations for volunteering can vary from a desire to improve a resume, expand social networking or stay busy, DeRitter said. “The reasons students begin volunteering may range,” she said. “But the reasons why hey stick with it are usually the same.” Many people who volunteer feel empowered, or gracious, or leave the experience with a greater sense of understanding, DeRitter said.

The positive effects run deep, said Stephen Post, a professor of neuroscience at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and author of “Why Good Things Happen to Good People.” Post has been studying the effects of altruism, which he defines as the devotion of welfare to others, for more than 30 years, and has found, through his and his colleagues’ research, that those who act altruistically can benefit physically and psychologically. “There is a part of the brain that is associated with joy called the mesolimbic pathway that is activated when people help others,” Post said. “Some researchers call it ‘helpers high.” During this process, neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin are released, he said. Many of the results of volunteerism have been shown in studies, but the root of altruism is still somewhat of a mystery, Post said. “There’s definitely a genetic element to it,” Post said. “Some people may be a little more hard wired for generosity than others. But the main thing seems to be family life and how a person is raised.” An adult’s behavior is often affected by the behavior of other people who that adult was exposed to as a child, he said. At the Jumpstart event, Parker stood by the doorway as the guests, 10 families in total, including 17 toddlers, left the four-hour event. She handed each family a bundle of four books and thanked them for coming. Her mother, Diane Parker, who traveled five hours from New Jersey to support her daughter during the event, stood beside her most of the night. “I’m so proud of her,” Diane Parker said. “But who wouldn’t be?” At about 10 p.m., all of the guests had left. The room was messy, but manageable, Parker said. She finally did get something to eat that night; she and her friends ended up eating Chinese food. But even after a 17-hour-day, food barely crossed her mind, she said.

On a National Level In March 2007, Kelton Research, a research firm based in Culver City, Calif., conducted a survey on volunteerism in the United States and found adults ages 18-24 were the least likely demographic to volunteer. They acquired this data by using a Random Digit Dialing system of both listed and unlisted phone numbers according to the study. Their data revealed 28 percent of young adults surveyed (18-24) said they volunteer, as compared to 45 percent of the total adult population (persons older than 18) who said they volunteer. Also indicated in the statistics prepared by Kelton, 89 percent of those who did not volunteer said they supported volunteerism, but didn’t do it for a variety of reasons. Forty-nine percent of those who did not volunteer said they didn’t have enough time. This is the case for some students at Northeastern as well. Matthew Ritter, a sophomore finance major, said he has an interest in volunteering, but can’t fit it in to his schedule, and doesn’t know where to go or what to do. “Part of the reason I don’t volunteer is that I can’t give the time commitment,” he said. “And as for short term opportunities, such as volunteering at a soup kitchen, I just don’t have enough information to go through with it.” Another census was conducted by the United States Department of Labor last year. It found volunteerism in a declining state in general, but especially for teenagers and young adults, ages 16-24. Gathering data obtained through a supplement to the September 2007 Current Population Survey (CPS), which was sent to 60,000 households, the Department of Labor found 17.7 percent of the people in their early 20s that were surveyed volunteered. The survey defined volunteerism as participating with a service organization. The total proportion of people surveyed who did volunteer was 26.2 percent, which indicated a 0.5 percentage point decrease since 2006, and a decline of 2.1 percentage points since 2005. According to the data gathered during the past six years and presented by the United States Department of Labor, volunteerism was highest in 2005 (28.8 percent), but prior to that, 2002 held the modern record, with 27.4 percent of the population volunteering at the time. The high levels of volunteerism that occurred during 2002 could be explained by the events of September 11, said Jack Levin, a sociology professor at Northeastern. “It doesn’t surprise me that for a short period of time there was an increase in volunteerism or activism, in general,” said Levin, who teaches a course entitled Social Conflict and Community Service. “A level of activism gave people a feeling of controlling their own destinies when many people felt a sense of powerlessness.” Levin usually approaches these types of statistics with a high level of skepticism, he said. The young adults of today are sometimes mistaken for apathetic because they are not engaged in protests or a high level of visible activism, the way some of the baby boomers were, he said. “We just don’t see many demonstrations today the way we saw in the ’60s and ’70s,” Levin said. “But the kind of activism we see on campuses, including Northeastern’s, makes a big difference as well.” The students who volunteer today get involved on more of a grassroots level, often connecting with organizations that promote a message or fight for a cause, he said. “What’s easier?” Levin asked. “Making a lot of noise in the streets or coming to the rescue of individuals suffering?”

Family influence Julie Miller, a middler dual major in American sign language and human services, chose an alternative to a traditional six-month co-op. Since January in Washington D.C., Miller studied in Gallaudet University, which accommodates deaf and hard of hearing students during the spring semester. Miller is not deaf, nor is she hard of hearing. But she has been connected to the deaf community all her life, she said. Her 24-year-old sister, Cara, is studying at Gallaudet to become a psychologist. While growing up, Miller said she did what many younger sisters do to their older sisters: imitate them. Though her sister is deaf and has struggled with communication her whole life, Miller said she sees her holistically and understanding her disability is only one part of her, a perspective she applies to everyone she comes in contact with, she said. “Judgment can be a poison,” she said. “Being exposed to the deaf community taught me, and continues to teach me, that no deaf person is the same, no one is the same, each person has walked their own road and adopted their own lifestyle.” Miller said she knows not everyone shares her views, especially after seeing her sister come home from school after being teased. “I remember Cara coming home from middle school one day crying because her class was watching a movie with captions on and a kid turned them off when the teacher left,” she said. “I got very emotional, just knowing that she was having such a hard time with her peers.” Studying at Gallaudet is not the first step Miller has taken in attempting to understand her sister’s world. In high school, Miller said she organized a theatre group in her hometown of West Hartford, Conn., and included students who were deaf and hard of hearing, after seeing her sister find a community for herself in a similar program. Miller continues to step outside of herself, in an attempt to understand the pain of others. At Northeastern, she volunteers for Social Change through Peace Games, an organization that focuses on educating children from different elementary schools. She is also a member of the Campus Center for Violence Against Women (CCVAW), and has interned at The DC Rape Crisis Center. Experiences with family members and loved ones can influence whether or not a person will act altruistically, Post said. When a person sees a loved one suffering, they often feel compelled to change that in some way, even if it’s done indirectly, he said. This trend can especially be in evident in the media, Levin said. Celebrities can often become spokespersons for physical or mental illness they dealt with, or adversities they’ve faced. Examples include Katie Couric’s campaign against colon cancer after she lost her husband to the disease and Michael J. Fox’s attempts to educate the public about Parkinson’s disease, which he lives with. These efforts are significant, Levin said, but misses the heart of the issue. “I’m not putting those efforts down, but you can’t always depend on the people who have suffered to recognize the problem,” he said. “We need a lot more help than that.” This same attitude inspired Megan Redman, a 2008 communications graduate to establish a chapter of the Media Literacy Project at Northeastern two years ago. Redman saw the importance of understanding how to interpret messages in the media, and felt it was necessary to spread the knowledge, she said. After establishing the club and creating lessons, she and a few classmates set out to different high schools and began having conversations with students about the subject. “A lot of times the media is kind of the glue in our society,” Redman said. “We have our separate lives and careers, but the mass media connects us all. The social values are implied and construed in the media become important to our self definition. That is the primary reason I believe media literacy is so important for students in high school.”

Getting There Ethan LaRochelle is the director of development of a student group called Engineers Without Borders (EWB), which was brought to Northeastern in 2004 and has been growing ever since, he said. LaRochelle and his team left on April 19 to go to Los Planes, Honduras where they installed modern irrigation systems to provide clean water for the towns’ citizens. “It’s a small town, it’s not even on here,” he said as he scanned a 10- year-old map. Since he transferred from George Washington University in 2004, LaRochelle has been involved with EWB, and has used his skills to design water infrastructure and reconstruct buildings in nations like Honduras. “What we are seeing is a dedication to high quality service from many students,” said Catherine Gildae, a sociology professor. “They don’t want to do the ‘soup kitchen thing’ anymore, many of them are serving in areas they feel need it the most.” Gildae is one of many professors at Northeastern encouraging students to take advantage of service learning programs. She teaches a class called, Human Services Research and Evaluation, in which students take on different service tasks, and explore the social circumstances surrounding them. Lauren Pouchak, associate director of the honors program, collaborated with the Center of Community Service more than a year ago to launch the Honors Outreach program for first year honors students. In different areas in Boston, more than 350 honors student volunteered. “It’s so important to expose students early on in college to get them thinking about what they can do in the future,” Pouchak said. Much of the change has to do with President Joseph Aoun and his approach to experiential learning, which remains the basis of Northeastern, she said. Since President Aoun has been president only for two years, new initiatives toward a fresh approach to community service is underway. “Based on conversations with community leaders, we envision a new Northeastern Neighborhood Alliance of students, faculty and staff volunteers who will engage with the schools, homeless shelters, religious organizations and community centers,” Aoun said in his inaugural speech in March 2007. “In the decades ahead, our graduates will be successful not only because of what they have learned at Northeastern, but also because of what they have learned here in Roxbury and Mission Hill, in the Fenway and the South End, and throughout Boston.” Having the president of the school acknowledge service learning as part of experiential learning shows the university’s interest in promoting volunteerism, DeRitter said. Treating volunteering with equal respect as co-op, student research and global experience, may lead to a greater community service involvement at Northeastern, she said. Service projects and programs at Northeastern have grown during the past five years. The Alternative Spring Break program has increased dramatically since it was first introduced to Northeastern in 2003, when only six students traveled to one destination. This year, more than 10 national and international trips, took place, attracting 92 undergraduates. The NU and Martin Luther King service days , which took place in October 2007 and January attracted a combined number of 612 volunteers, including staff and graduate students, a number pointing to the right direction, DeRitter said. “You see a large amount of volunteerism at a school like Boston College because they’re connected with the Jesuit tradition,” Gildae said. “It’s part of their mission, it’s built over time. It’s not that it can’t be done here, it just takes time, and we need someone on top to institute that.”