Coe College sophomore Sam Sikrisamouth is spending this week in Atlanta, swinging a hammer and wielding a paintbrush during Coe’s alternative spring break trip to help build homes.
Most colleges and universities offer alternative spring break, when students volunteer around the state and around the country. The trips are among the numerous ways that an increasing number of Iowa college students volunteer in their communities or take part in service learning in their classes.
Iowa college students in 2006 were 32nd in the nation for community service rates, and they jumped to fifth in 2008 and to second nationally in 2010, according Volunteering in America.
Coe College in Cedar Rapids is one of few in Iowa that requires community service of first-year students — 20 hours during their first two semesters, choosing from 14 programs run by student coordinators.
“I think it’s great because it helps us connect with the community around us and let’s us know what our surroundings are,” said Sikrisamouth, 19, who has volunteered in the recess buddy program with Taylor Elementary, tutored students at McKinley Middle School and read with students at Garfield Elementary.
While few Iowa colleges and universities require students to complete a set number of service hours, like Coe does, most schools help connect students with partner organizations.
Exact numbers are hard to track because students can volunteer through many different campus organizations or their academic departments, and it’s often a decentralized process on some campuses. But officials at many Iowa schools said they are seeing more student interest in community service.
Officials see several driving factors,: schools making resources more available for students to get involved; more students coming in with high school volunteering hours; and students seeking career experience.
“I think campuses are understanding their role in not only educating an active, educated work force but also educating citizens,” Rachel Manuel, executive director of the Iowa Campus Compact, said.
The Iowa Campus Compact has 19 members. It’s affiliated with the national Campus Compact, a coalition of nearly 1,200 college and university leaders committed to civic engagement.
Service learning as part of a class also is becoming more popular, several officials said.
Mary Campbell, University of Iowa associate professor of sociology, uses service learning in two of the three undergraduate courses. Campbell specializes in racial and ethnic inequality, and she wanted her students to learn how organizations work to combat the inequality the students learn about.
“In evaluations, it often comes up as students’ favorite thing about the class,” she said.
UI sophomore Cam Koch, 19, volunteers at UI Hospitals and Clinics in the surgical intensive care unit. Koch, a pre-med and human physiology major from West Des Moines, is launching a new campus group, the UI Service Club.
Koch wants a central place where students, especially those new to campus, can learn about opportunities for volunteering.
“It can be really intimidating coming in, not knowing how to get involved,” he said. “But the feelings you get when you’re really helping people, feeling like you’re really helping the community out, that feeling is better than anything.”
The UI has the Community-Based Learning Program, an office where students can partner with local organizations and learn more about volunteer opportunities. But the more student groups focus on volunteering, the easier it is for students to get involved, program director Mary Mathew Wilson said.
The UI, Coe and Cornell College in Mount Vernon are among the 19 members of the Iowa Campus Compact.
“It kind of looks different on every campus,” Kara Trebil, director of civic engagement at Cornell, said. “Ours is more extracurricular, while some are much more career services based or more integrated into the classroom.”
Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids several years ago integrated service learning into the core curriculum, Associate Provost Jan Handler said. Incoming students take the Mercy Experience portal course related to Mercy concerns like immigration, violence and poverty.