How Undergraduates Are Affected by Service Participation

This article looks at the impact of community service participation on undergraduate student development, based on entering freshman and follow-up data collection from 3,450 students attending 42 institutions with federally funded community service programs. Even after regression analyses controlled for individual student characteristics at the time of college entry, including the propensity to engage in service, results indicate that participating in service during the undergraduate years substantially enhances the student's academic development, life skill development, and sense of civic responsibility. (author)