volunteer

The following question was emailed to Planet Gap Year last week from a student named Ryan in Wisconsin. With his permission, we are posting his email to show our readers an example of the increasing interest shown by American students to choose volunteer service in the US for a gap year. My answer to his question is at the bottom of the page.

I read an article published in January 08 on the personal finance site TheStreet.com entitled How to Get Uncle Sam's Help With Student Loans by Laura Moran. My summary below is worth a read if you want to take time out to volunteer and reduce your educational debt at the same time!

According to a January 2007 Time article Democracy Reborn, by Rich Stengel, a 'youth quake' of participation in the voting process is taking hold in America, reversing successive declines in election cycles between 1972 and 2004. Stengel comments that "young people sense they are coming of age at a time when leadership, and their role in choosing it, really matters".

Ben Casnocha, a student at Claremont McKenna College, was recently asked to weigh in on our site about his own a gap year experience. He happily obliged, and provided the following 'thoughts' about his gap year experience. Ben has helped popularize the gap year concept in the US with his Gap Year Travel Blog. He is also an entrepreneur and author.

The National Service movement in the US is alive and strong. According to a September TIME Magazine article, A Time To Serve - The Case For National Service by Rick Stengel, more than 61 million Americans dedicated 8.1 billion hours to volunteering in 2006, and the nation's volunteer rate has increased by more than 6 percentage points since 1989. Volunteer and civic engagement have not been at this level since the 1970's. Why are so many people volunteering?