Students Making Community Service a Career
I believe that it is incredibly important for all of us to give back to our communities. Not only does giving back improve the health of the communities in which we live, but it also improves our own mental health. Nothing feels better than making a positive difference in the life of someone who needs a helping hand.
Today's college students understand the importance of community service. Thousands compete for positions with organizations such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and Teach for America. But a significant difference between Gen Y / Millennials and Gen X'ers, Baby Boomers, and other generations is that Gen Y'ers are much more interested in not only working for service organizations for a while after graduation but they're also interested in creating their own service organizations.
The thought of thousands of new service organizations being created by energetic, college educated professionals is very exciting. Yet I wonder how realistic it is for most. While their hearts may be in the right place, their wallets may not. This generation is facing financial pressures like none before it due to the incredible escalation in the cost of post-secondary tuition and the resulting incredible escalation in student loan debt.
Service organizations tend not to be the creators of big paychecks for their employees or owners so how will a student with thousands of dollars in monthly debt payments be able to afford to create and run such an organization? The unfortunate truth is that, in most cases, they won't.
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