Altruism Meets a Weak Job Market

...growing ranks of college graduates who, amid a worsening job market, are contributing to a surge in applications and enlistments at public-service agencies like Teach for America and the Peace Corps. Indeed, only 59% of employers surveyed expect to hire 2008 graduates by the end of the summer, down from 76% the year before, according to a survey of about 1,000 employers

But organizations cite another impulse behind this generation's embrace of nontraditional postgraduate employment: a simple desire to change the world.

"There is a significant segment of this population that really wants to make a difference," says Philip D. Gardner, research director at the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.

Together, the weak economy and increasing civic mindedness are driving grads to work for social causes. Teach for America, the nonprofit organization that sends college graduates to work in low-income public schools, saw applications jump 36% to 24,718 from 18,172 a year ago. Of those, about 3,700 are selected to teach in more than 100 school districts next fall, up more than one-fourth over the year before.

Founded by a young Princeton University alumna in 1990, the organization recruits and trains top college graduates, who commit to two years of teaching in high-poverty urban and rural schools. Teachers are paid by the districts in which they work, with annual salaries typically ranging from $25,000 to $44,000.

The Peace Corps is expecting a 16% increase in applications for the fiscal year ending Oct. 1. Established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps sends volunteers to developing countries to work on education, agriculture and other projects. Enthusiasm for the program reached a peak of more than 15,000 volunteers in 1967 before spiraling downward, bottoming out at 5,219 in 1987. But participation has been climbing again in recent years: Fiscal 2007 saw more than 8,000 volunteers -- a level not seen since the 1970s.

A domestic version of the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, sends young workers to take on projects in impoverished cities and rural areas. The government-backed organization connects volunteers to a network of more than 4,000 local, state and national service organizations. For most positions, AmeriCorps requires 1,700 hours of service -- typically about a year -- with volunteers receiving a living allowance of about $11,000 a year, plus an education award of $4,725 to be used toward college tuition or repayment of student loans. (Teach for America is one of the AmeriCorps member organizations where volunteers who complete their service qualify for the education grant.)

Jesuit Volunteer Corps, which saw a 14% increase in applications through June of this year, sends mainly new college graduates to work in needy communities both domestically and around the world for as long as two years. And WorldTeach, a nonprofit affiliated with Harvard University, sends volunteers to teach English in developing countries. The organization saw applications among college-graduate volunteers increase by a third this year to 363.

The passion to serve is also hitting a note in the presidential race. In a speech on Wednesday in Colorado Springs, Colo., Sen. Barack Obama said he would expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots from the current 75,000. And he would double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011. (A spokesman for Sen. John McCain says that while the Republican contender supports service initiatives, he hasn't proposed any expansion).

While young grads may be driven by social causes, many are acquiring valuable experience and leadership skills that will be useful when they return to the job market.

Still, try to pack in an internship before you sign on, advises Brad Karsh, president of JobBound, a career-counseling service that often works with younger job-seekers. "Have a little bit of business grounding" to put on your résumé, he says, because many employers will wonder, "Will an earthy, crunchy Peace Corps type want to work for The Man?"