Can Service Learning and a College Climate of Service Lead to Increased Political Engagement After College?

This longitudinal study is part of a larger study following the 1994 entering cohort of college students through college years and into early adulthood. The study explores how both individual participation in service-learning and an institutional climate of valuing service during college is related to political engagement during the post-college years. The study examines two questions: What impact, if any, does participation in service-learning during college have on respondents' political engagement after college? What impact, if any, do peer average levels of volunteerism/service in college have on respondents' political engagement in the post-college years? The study's main findings suggested that respondents who participated in service during college, as compared to those who reported no service at all during college, tended to be more politically engaged in the post-college years. The findings for peer average levels of volunteerism were marginally significant, demonstrating, at best, a possible contextual effect of this environmental measure on the outcome of political engagement.