Two surveys were sent to the WPI undergraduate student body and one hundred and sixty
responses were received. This was less than 10 percent of the WPI population and was not an ideal
sample from which to draw firm conclusions but was analyzed for the purpose of the report.
One hundred and twelve of these students were active volunteers and forty eight were either
non-active volunteers or individuals who have never volunteered in the past. It would appear that a
greater number of WPI students are active volunteers than inactive volunteers, but in actuality the
team believes that the survey title, which included the words “Community Service”, was more
appealing to students who currently volunteer and as such the majority of our sampled students
consisted of current volunteers.
Thirty percent of the students who completed the non-volunteer survey had never volunteered
in the past, and sixty percent were volunteers that were currently not active. Figure 6.2 on the next
page illustrates a breakdown of the areas of service that inactive volunteers participated in by
percentage. Non-volunteers who had no prior experience in community service were not included in
the graph.
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Figure 6.2: Past Service Areas of Inactive Volunteers
Mentoring/Tutoring and Disabled/Health categories were the most popular service areas that
inactive volunteers assisted with in the past. Those categories require a great deal of interpersonal
skills and it is believed that this is why they were more appealing to college students. The second
most popular service area for non active volunteers was Hunger and Homelessness. This area of
service frequently receives aid from student groups, especially during high school, and as expected
many of the students that listed these areas mentioned high school volunteer involvement. Other
categories, listed by highest popularity, were: Families and Elders, Arts and Environments, Children
Services and Abuse (domestic, children, substance). The team was unable to predict the high level of
participation in the areas of Arts and Environment because it appeals to small groups of students
with special interests in this area. The Abuse category had the smallest percentage of inactive
volunteers and this is due to the training requirement for individuals who work with abuse victims.
On the contrary, volunteering with families and children tends to be very flexible and it was
surprising to observe that many non active volunteers did not participate in those categories.
Service activities that did not fall in the above categories were included in the Others category which
was made up of fifteen percent of the inactive volunteer responses. Some of the activities that were
listed under this category were “fixing computers for students”,” clean-up service in Africa”, and
“library assistant”
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Similar results were not obtained for active volunteers with current service commitments.
About five students misunderstood the instructions and listed no current involvement in service
even though they took the active volunteer survey. This could have been avoided if the survey titles
were more distinct specifying ‘Active Volunteer Survey” and” Past and Non-Volunteer Survey”. The
responses from these students were not included in the results. The areas that were serviced by
active WPI volunteers were included n Figure 6.3 below with percentage involvement.
Figure 6.3: Service Areas of Current Volunteers
The most popular service category was Mentoring and Tutoring at local schools and Big Brother
Big Sisters club houses. College students are ideal for motivating and inspiring the youth and have
the ability to share their knowledge with younger peers in a way that older individuals cannot. It was
no surprise that this category was the most popular among students. Almost fifteen percent of the
responders mentioned an affiliation with Greek organizations and also involvement in fundraising
for large research funds, two of which were Relay for Life and Juvenile Diabetics. Greek
organizations are required to adopt a charity and as such the team predicted that many Greek
students would be involved in fundraising activities. Fundraising events tend to occur on a sporadic
basis, which makes them appealing to student volunteers. Therefore, it ranked second among
activities for active volunteers. Children services follows behind these two categories because
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college students can easily identify with younger peers and more inclined to assist and help to shape
youth as opposed to assisting adults.
Arts/Environment, Hunger/Homelessness and Disabled/Health service were ranked similarly with
either seven or eight percent of student participation. These service areas were also ranked low and
had fifteen and nine percent participation among inactive volunteers. The team believes that it is
because that these types of service do require either extensive training or a special interest. The
least popular areas of service were Families/Elders, Religious and Abuse. Serving the abused would
also require a great deal of training, and religious service would require a personal conviction and so
had expectedly lower number of participants. The team was surprised by the low level of
participation for assisting families and the elderly because this type of service is fairly flexible, and
would be expected to be more appealing to college students.
In document
Capítulo 36-1: Monstruo entre Genios (1)
(página 43-47)