How Undergraduates Are Affected by Service Participation.

Abstract

Based on entering freshman and follow-up datacollected from 3,450 students (2,287 women and1,163 men) attending 42 institutions withfederally funded community service programs,the impact of community service participationon undergraduate student development wasexamined. Even after regression analysescontrolled for individual student characteristicsat the time of college entry, including thepropensity to engage in service, results indicatethat participating in service during the under-graduate years substantially enhances thestudent’s academic development, life skilldevelopment, and sense of civic responsibility.