Why Do Millennials
Choose Service?
Millennials (noun) birth years ranging from the 1980s
to the 2000s;
Alternative names: Generation Y
National Service (noun) serving ones country of origin
through government service programs military or non-military
With the economy
still down and unemployment rates averaging at 7% for the past three years,
it’s no wonder that people are looking to service organizations and
opportunities to get ahead. It’s a known fact that Millennials in the United
States have the highest rate of service-oriented population. Some of it has to
do with the war, some of it has to do with that high unemployment rate, and
some of it has to do with the vicious cycle of “I need work experience to get a
job, but I need a job to get work experience.” Mostly- well, in my own opinion,
at least- Millennials are serving because they see the value in it. Service
oriented positions such as military service, national service, or state and
local organizations have seen higher rates of applications that ever before. An
article from Fortune.com gives statistics to back this up:
“In 2011 alone, AmeriCorps received 582,000 applications for
only 80,000 spots. This number is up from 360,000 applications in 2009. While a
down economy may have something to do with increased applications, millennials
are the most service oriented of any generation. The National Conference
on Citizenship reported that millennials lead every generation with a
43% service rate compared to a 35% service rate among baby boomers.”
Of course we can
count the military as service and in my opinion it’s some of the most
courageous types of service that you can do. However, for the purposes of this
blog, I’m strictly going to be speaking to National Service- because after all,
it is what I’m most fluent in. At my VISTA Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) we
learned the common trends among generations. We learned that the Baby Boomer
generation are work centric and accept challenges thrown their way. We learned
that Generation X members value their work, but balance it with their home
life. And we learned that millennials are team-oriented. According to my PSO
workbook millennials “want meaningful work” and are “part of a no-person-left-behind
generation, they are loyal, committed and want to be included and involved.”
This, I feel, is the most prominent part of my generation. Although we are
tech-savvy and we suffer from severe “screen-time”, we mostly care about others
and about those around us- and use our tech skills to communicate with one
another often. We tell each other about what we’re doing, what interests us,
what causes we are fighting for at the time. Maybe I’m biased and this isn’t
how my whole generation is. Perhaps it’s because I have spent the last two
years surrounded by people who have a similar mindset as me when it comes to
service, but perhaps not- I want it to be true and I think that the number of
applicants to AmeriCorps in 2011 prove that my generation is as compassionate
as I believe they are.
Of the five members
of Green 5 last year (4 corpsmembers and myself), three of us chose another
year of service. That is probably an unreasonable ratio and more than likely,
not every team had people rejoining a service program, but I am willing to bet
that if there was a poll done for Life After AmeriCorps at least 30% of NCCC
members went back into service.
So, why do we choose
this path? Why do we say “I’d rather get paid like dirt for a year of
accomplishment, than work 40 hours a week right out of high school or college”?
That’s not to say that my classmates who jumped directly into the workforce are
not receiving accomplishments. All I mean is that dedicating a year to national
service is done for a sense of pride because really there are limited other
benefits. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we grew up with it.
AmeriCorps turns 20 this year (VISTA is turning 50) and though it’s still not
the prominent household name that us service members hope it is, AmeriCorps is
roughly the same age as most of its members. In my travels with the agency, I
have noticed that when I tell people outside of my age bracket that I ‘work’
for AmeriCorps they are more likely to ask what that is. I guarantee that any service
member is sick of tell the public “it’s like the domestic Peace Corps.”
However, when I share with another millennial that I am an AmeriCorps member,
they are far more likely to say “I knew someone who did service with
AmeriCorps” or “Oh, I have a friend serving in [insert state here]” I know that
many of you are thinking “well, of course they know someone, you have to be
young to serve!” But that’s simply not true. The only AmeriCorps program with
an age restriction is NCCC. And that is strictly for corpsmembers. There is no
age limit to be a Team Leader. There is no age limit to be a VISTA. There is no
age limit to serve State and National. I should note that I am strictly
speaking about national AmeriCorps programs- I am not speaking to programs such
as City Year or other AmeriCorps funded programs.
We come back to the
same question… Why millennials? I’m still not sure, but I know that I am glad
to be part of a generation that has chosen this path to define themselves
(well, the definition that I like to go by for millennials, anyway). I will
leave you with a quote which closely sums up how I feel about joining the
national service network:
“The one percent of Americans that serve in the
military and their families are bearing an inequitable burden to keep our
country free during this time of war. Shouldn't we ask citizens to protect our
communities here at home by improving our schools, responding to natural
disasters, and bringing clean energy to our neighborhoods? Through national
service we can strengthen our democracy, meet pressing challenges, build a more
active and engaged citizenry, and live up to America's promise to ‘form a more
perfect union.’“
Quotes taken from
(respectively):
