Why We Do Years of Service

As this is my first blog for The Xenia Institute and my first blog ever, I thought I could write about something I know, namely years of service. What makes me such an expert on a year of service? Well, I’m completing one right now in Los Angeles, Calif. My placement is as a prevention advocate at Common Ground: The Westside HIV Community Center in Santa Monica. While working there, I live with five other volunteers all participating in a faith-based Americorps affiliate, the Episcopal Urban Intern Program.

My year has been a challenge on many fronts but I think one of the biggest challenges is trying to explain what I’m doing. In my experience, people don’t understand why someone might choose to leave a former life behind and move to a new part of the country to work for a year at difficult jobs with very little pay. So, I hope that this blog will clear up some of the reasons that thousands of young Americans have chosen to participate in programs like Americorps, Teach for America, City Year or the Peace Corps. I offer five reasons.

1. General lack of direction. After finishing college, the next step is often unclear. Moving, finding a ‘real’ job, and meeting new people are all significant tasks and after 4 or more years of college, many of us are exhausted. I know I was. Grad school may be looming somewhere in the future but the selection of graduate degree may also be a big decision that determines life course (law school means you’re locked into law, etc.). Who wants to make that kind of decision after being zapped of all brain function by college? Years of service offer a time for reflection to make difficult decisions.
2. The need to give back. After 17 years of formal schooling, many of us are ready to jump in and do something. Service programs provide opportunities to give back to a community and exercise some of the idealism we have picked up along the way. I was aching to do something hands on after so many years of study.
3. Service opportunities offer a full package. Many service opportunities offer more than just a job. They can offer housing, a change of location, and a built-in social network with other volunteers. This is a major reason I chose the program I did. I knew I wanted to move across the country but didn’t want to have to compose a life all on my own. My program offered transportation around LA, work, a network of former and current volunteers and a relationship with a faith community. It was all here waiting when I arrived in August.
4. What’s in a year or two?Taking one year off to do something different doesn’t seem like a huge time commitment. Seven months through my own year, I feel it flying by. Other programs such as Teach for America and Peace Corps are two years. But, after spending four years in college, two years isn’t that long.
5. Taking opportunities before they expire. In my final semester at OU, I took a class where we talked a lot about life plans and course. What I learned was that you need to take the opportunities with an expiration date before those without. Law school can always wait. Americorps only accepts applicants below a certain age. So, Americorps should come before law school.

These are just a few of the reasons, but I think they represent a good chunk of why young people are choosing service programs. So, when you find out that a friend or relative is doing a year of service, hopefully you will have more insight as to why.