Introduction

National and community service is a valid and transformative path that academic advisers can explore with graduating advisees. It is no secret that an individual’s career path may undergo a number of transitions—10.5 job changes on average, according to the United States Department of Labor’s National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (as cited in Henscheid, 2008a). Roman Krznaric, founder of The School of Life and author of How to Find Fulfilling Work said people often follow a “plan and implement” model of pursuing their careers (as cited in Wicker, 2013, para. 8). This model can be translated to higher education, where students often research occupations, “reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, and ambitions,” then commit to pursuing a career path without actually experiencing it in the real world and having idealistic views of that path (Wicker, 2013, para. 8). Employers are also reporting that college graduates are underprepared for some aspects of professional life (Fabris, 2015).

As an intervention to these trends, advisers should consider exploring a term of national and community service with their advisees as a post-baccalaureate option outside the traditional paths of employment or graduate school. National and community service can augment undergraduate education, granting young adults an opportunity to apply their college learning, explore areas of interest, discover true passions, and build professional skill sets. This experience will also afford graduates real-world insight and knowledge valuable to employers or graduate work.

What Is National and Community Service?

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is the federal agency that oversees national service and volunteering initiatives. CNCS areas of focus include disaster response, economic opportunity, education, the environment, health and wellness, as well as veterans and their families. Volunteers may serve at nonprofit organizations, schools, and community and faith-based organizations. Specific tasks may include tutoring and mentoring youth, building affordable housing, or providing health and wellness education in underserved communities. A critical aspect of serving as a volunteer through CNCS is expanding the long-term capacity of host organizations to serve the community (CNCS, 2015b).

CNCS oversees a number of initiatives, including AmeriCorps, which consists of three programs: State and National, National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). Each program has a unique mission as well as specific qualifications that applicants must meet. The mission of VISTA, in particular, is to leverage a community’s assets to alleviate poverty. VISTA volunteers support initiatives that promote education, literacy, workforce development; reduce hunger and homelessness; and provide health and wellness education, as well as address the needs of veterans and their families. VISTA volunteers also assess community assets and liabilities, develop and maintain community partnerships, procure funds, recruit and train community participants, as well as evaluate the efficacy of service site initiatives (CNCS, 2013).

Self-Authorship

According to the National Academic Advising Association, academic advising helps “students learn to think critically about their roles and responsibilities as students, and to prepare to be educated citizens of a democratic society and a global community” (as cited in Darling, 2015, p. 92). Advisers, therefore, should ask challenging questions during advising discussions with their students to promote self-authorship, which is the “capacity to internally generate beliefs, values, identity, and social relations” (Baxter Magolda & King, 2008, p. 8).

Guiding students on the path toward self-authorship means that academic advising conversations need to go beyond “what classes are you thinking about taking?” and “what do you want to do after graduation?” According to Baxter Magolda and King (2008), academic advisers can be an unbiased force “[guiding] students through the transformation from external definition to self-authorship” (p. 10), by helping students reflect on their values, interests, skills, and goals. Advisers can also help students see how the choices they make will impact their academic and career goals, empowering students to choose and take responsibility for their own paths. With this in mind, national and community service complements the undergraduate years and is a way to gain real-world knowledge and experience before committing to a job or graduate school.

Employability

While assisting students in developing self-authorship skills, advisers support the goals of higher education institutions as well as the mission of academic advising. As Darling (2015) stated, “The pressure is on for advisers to show how their work can impact higher retention and graduation rates and students’ future careers and employment” (p. 91). Interestingly, employers report that newly graduated employees lack the critical skills they seek, highlighting an incongruity between how prepared students feel they are for the workforce and how prepared employers feel the students are (Fabris, 2015). According to a 2014 Association of American Colleges & Universities (AACU) study, “… while 59 percent of [613] students said they were well-prepared to analyze and solve complex problems, just 24 percent of [400] employers said they had found that to be true of recent college graduates” (cited in Fabris, 2015, para. 6). This is not just a recent trend; the same AACU study from 2007 found that while graduates were well prepared in “teamwork, ethical judgment, intercultural skills, social responsibility, quantitative reasoning, and self-knowledge.… at least three in ten employers give college graduates low scores … for their preparedness in global knowledge, self-direction, writing, critical thinking, and adaptability” (cited in Henscheid, 2008a, p. 81).

In response to this trend, institutions have initiated a number of efforts to help college seniors connect their college experience and learning to future occupations and sharpen their ability to think critically inasmuch as “employers … find this skill lacking” (Henscheid, 2008b, p. 25). Henscheid (2008b) further suggested “attention also needs to be focused on making the connections between intellectual, personal, and social outcomes more explicit” (p. 25). Andrew Kelly, director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute believes “employers like to see graduates who have tackled personal and independent projects requiring significant attention and effort … because such work can demonstrate dedication and grit” (as cited in Fabris, 2015). A term of national and community service is an exceptional opportunity for graduates to immerse themselves in initiatives that require this dedication and to cultivate commitment and competence. By suggesting undergraduate students consider national and community service after graduation, academic advisers can balance the needs of students, employers, and institutions to achieve a desirable outcome for all constituents, leading to self-authored, dedicated professionals with the qualifications to most effectively serve their employers and represent their alma maters.

National and community service has a number of advantages and benefits. Individuals can choose from diverse opportunities throughout the country based on their skills and interests (CNCS, 2013). Service members also gain an employment advantage. National and community service “provides members with valuable skills specific to their service. … as well as general skills of leadership and problem solving that all employers are looking for” (CNCS, 2015a, p. 2). Members who serve capitalize on and develop personal qualities and skills, including motivation, flexibility, and resourcefulness, as well as develop professionalism, communication skills, and ability to work in teams (CNCS, 2015a).

CNCS also launched an Employers of National Service initiative that connects national service alumni with employers (CNCS, 20105c). National and community service also affords alums social capital to help obtain employment, largely derived from the mentors they gain and contacts they make while serving, as well as fellow alums who may hire them (Spera, Ghertner, Nerino, & DiTommaso, 2013). From experience, I can say that employers familiar with the dedication and grit of VISTAs are attracted to applicants with national service experience, either because they personally have been a VISTA or they work with current or former VISTAs.

Personal Story

As an undergraduate, I majored in geology. My goals were to complete my assignments, get good grades, and find a job that paid well after graduation. That’s what college is about, right? The goal of my advising sessions was to make sure I was on track to complete degree requirements. I also knew it was important to get additional experiences, so I worked in a lab during the school year and found a relevant summer internship. I did not think critically about what I was doing; I was on autopilot, doing what needed to be done to earn the degree and get a job. I would not trade my undergraduate experience—the institution, the classes, my geology friends, and fieldwork—for anything. That said, however, I wish I had been challenged more to think about what my values were, encouraged to really dream big, and nudged in the direction of resources that could help make it happen.

My first job after graduation was a great learning experience, but unfulfilling. I could not see myself moving up, nor did I want to. I had the privilege of being able to take a step back with the goal of critically reflecting about myself, including my values and experiences up to that point, to help guide my search for new opportunities.

I first learned about AmeriCorps in a career self-help book. The mission of AmeriCorps resonated with my values and desire to do something I felt mattered. Through AmeriCorps, I found an opportunity to mobilize college students to fight poverty in the community. I knew I had to pursue it, and I was excited about where this new path would lead. I applied, got the interview, and accepted the offer for a VISTA position at a college. My responsibilities included coordinating community service and service learning. I not only educated students on hunger, homelessness, and health challenges in the community but also empowered them to become change agents through short- and long-term involvement in organizations that addressed those needs. I was making a difference in the community as well as in the lives of students.

My experience in AmeriCorps transformed who I am and redirected my career goals. I further developed, applied, and became more confident in my critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability, resourcefulness, and assessment skills. I also discovered a career in which I could see myself spending the rest of my life and continuing to grow, ultimately leading me to a student affairs program in graduate school. National and community service has the same transformative potential for other students, and advisers should consider exploring this option with their advisees to promote their self-authorship and employability.

Commitment

While national service is a pathway to gain real-world experience and a way to apply undergraduate knowledge, it may not be the best option for all advisees. National and community service candidates must make a term commitment and will experience living at the poverty level. Candidates must have an appreciation for racial and socioeconomic diversity. They must also understand that the majority of tasks they undertake may be considered indirect service, as opposed to direct service. Direct service is when volunteers interact directly with the population(s) they are serving. Indirect service is working behind the scenes to cultivate partnerships, develop initiatives, raise money, or even create documents to help streamline the day-to-day functions of the agency they are serving. National service volunteers also often endure the challenges of working with limited resources, ambiguity, change within the organization they are serving, and possibly the adjustments that come with moving to a new community or region of the country.

Conclusion

It appears that national and community service is an untapped or at best underutilized post-graduation option for students who have the motivation and heart to pursue it. One institution surveyed its class of 2010 eight months after graduation, and of the 437 respondents, 6 percent reported their situation as “Other, including the Peace Corps & Armed Forces” (Hanover, 2012, p. 26). National and community service programs like AmeriCorps VISTA allow students to choose an area of interest and explore it for a year while applying their college education and developing work-place appropriate skills. Students build their professional networks, gain mentors, develop friendships, gain experience and insight, as well as develop critical-thinking, problem-solving, and crucial workplace interpersonal skills.

While national and community service has professional and personal challenges, students will be successful if they are motivated, passionate, have a heart for service, and an open mind. National and community service members are also well supported by CNCS. VISTAs can receive a living stipend, have supplemental employment, loan forbearance, as well as an educational or cash award after completing a service term. Service members also have access to a nationwide support network of past and current AmeriCorps volunteers.

I can attest to the impact a year (or two!) of service can have on one’s professional path. My national service experience was transformative and is the reason I am where I am today. It was truly an experiment in self-authorship, as an epiphany during my first job after college prompted me to search for a new direction, one that had meaning for me, not my relatives, friends, professors, or anybody else. The AmeriCorps experience was a crash course in adaptability, problem solving, and leadership that helped me gain confidence as a professional. There was no textbook or hard-and-fast rules to affect change in my new community. I just showed up every day and had excellent mentors who threw me in the deep end and let me swim; and because of this, I developed a passion for the student experience in higher education.

National and community service is a pathway to post-graduate success, further developing graduates into well-rounded, compassionate, and engaged citizens, tying together academics with real world experiences in a way that makes a difference in communities and appeals to employers and graduate programs. With the variety of service sites and projects that national service programs offer, nearly any student from any academic background can find an opportunity that will afford them insight and skill development before heading into the job market. Also, if cultivating student self-authorship is a priority during the college years and beyond, further building this skill through national service can result in fewer job transitions, saving employers money in recruitment and training. Students may also find employment in a field compatible with their most authentic self—and isn’t this what higher education is all about?