This paper explores how alumni of a multi-term public service program understand the connection between the program and their career development. Qualitative data were collected from 393 alumni based on six open-ended survey questions. While career and professional development is not an explicit goal of the program, a thematic analysis suggests…

Decades of scholarship on teaching and learning affirm the benefits of public service internships on student learning outcomes. Studies emphasize how hands-on fieldwork can increase students' substantive knowledge, political efficacy, trust in government, and civic participation, among other factors. However, most articles treat internships…

Preconceived expectations for one's behavior drive how people interact with their communities. Messaging via pop culture is a common source for citizens to learn about one community engagement tool: compulsory volunteering. Compulsory volunteering, like court-ordered community service and school-based volunteering, provides an opportunity to learn…

Qualitative and quantitative research was conducted with undergraduate students majoring in early childhood care and education to explore the impact of service-learning on personal and professional development, as well as to assess satisfaction with the service-learning project. The data were gathered at a baby care center, where these students…

How is required public service during college related to later civic behavior? This article reports findings from a survey of 359 alumni, conducted two years after they completed their undergraduate studies at Tulane University. The alumni held positive views of the substantial public service requirement they had completed before graduating and…

Developing values, interests, and skills for future careers, an important part of career development, is an outcome alumni perceive from participation in service-learning. Using in-depth interviews, this qualitative study of 33 alumni from three service-learning programs suggests rich connections between sustained service-learning experiences…

Research on individuals' experiences engaging in outdoor education programs suggests participants are impacted in a number of ways. This study investigated the impact of participation in a wilderness education course on undergraduates' experiences with public service. This study asked the research question, what is the impact of an Outward Bound…

Relational Developmental Systems (RDS) provided an integrative framework to examine how college students' intrapersonal attributes, particularly sense of identity in transactions with different educational experiences, were related with self-reported community and political engagement and other intrapersonal dimensions. Students who participated…

This article contributes to conceptualisations of public engagement as part of academic practice in higher education. It uses Hannah Arendt's idea of action in the public sphere, which is underpinned by the belief that all have the capacity to contribute to the renewal of the world, and that we are equally different. It argues that public…

This study examines the transformative experiences of a group of academic coaches who participated in the Target New Transitions (TNT) program during the 2014-2015 academic year. The TNT program trains undergraduate students, through professional development workshops and reflective exercises, to serve as year-round academic coaches for first-year…

Various commissions and reports have called on colleges and universities to better prepare students for participation in a democratic society. A limit of such reports is that they often fail to consider how students might be categorized relative to their shared patterns of civic behaviors. Relying on alumni survey data from American College…

The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which the characteristics of public administration degree programs are related to public service motivation (PSM) using a higher education socialization framework. Using a sample of approximately 500 students enrolled in 26 Master's degree programs across the country, this study confirms that…

In a September 2013 interview, Thomas Ehrlich and Ernestine Fu--whose passion for public service is manifested in differing ways and from two dramatically different generational standpoints--discussed insights from their co-authored book, "Civic Work, Civic Lessons: Two Generations Reflect on Public Service (2013)." Septuagenarian Tom…

They are everywhere: young people who refuse the narrow label of "student." Of course, they take care of schoolwork, but they also look outside of themselves and see a world full of need--and they want to help. This article features short profiles of adolescents--students, athletes, musicians, community activists, inventors, scientists, and…

The Serve Program at Ignatius University is a community service-learning program that combines academic study of philosophy with a yearlong field-based project at one of approximately 50 different sites. Half of these projects entail working with youth, while the other half entail working with adults. This mixed methods analysis found that college…