Bonner Scholars Program: A Study of the Impact of Stipends on Indicators of a Community Service Ethic, (The)

In the past decade an increasing number of scholarship programs have offered stipends for community service during college (e.g., Marquette University, Western Oregon University). The most widely known is AmeriCorps, a federal initiative which provides living expenses and educational awards (or educational awards only) for service during college. Although positive results have been achieved by AmeriCorps, little is known about the effects of financial rewards on the internalization of "an ethic" of community service (Chronicle of Higher Education 1998). Such an ethic is a clear goal of recent programs to integrate service into higher education, as indicated by a statement from Michigan Campus Compact that "direct contact with social problems and efforts to solve them...lay the foundation for a life-long ethic of public responsibility and community service." (Authors)