Why Young People Are Volunteering in Record Numbers

The researchers found that for middleand upper-middle-class high school students “resumepadding” is one of the motivating factors driving the increase in volunteering. According to Dr. Friedland, “Much of the reported volunteerism was shaped by the perception that voluntary and civic activity is necessary to get into any college; and the better the college (or, more precisely, the higher the perception of the college in the status system) the more volunteerism students believed was necessary. Many of the middleand upper-middle-class youth are explicitly volunteering for the purpose of what they themselves called ‘resume-padding.’”