Federal Study shows college students volunteering more

The "College Students Helping America" report released by the federal Corporation for National and Community Service found that college student volunteering increased by 20 percent between 2002 and 2005, more than doubling the growth in the adult volunteering rate. It found that 3.3 million college students volunteered in 2005 GÇô nearly 600,000 more students than three years ago -- building strong momentum toward a national goal of five million college student volunteers by 2010. Out of the total population of college students age 16-24 in Arkansas, 31-point-7 percent of students participated in volunteer work, ranking the state 22nd in the nation. The growth in volunteering over the four-year period was generated primarily by youths who attended high school or were first-year college students during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The vast majority, or 84 percent, of current college student volunteers in the study were of high-school age during the attacks of 2001. The Corporation conducted the study of college volunteers analyzing data collected from 2002 to 2005 as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a comprehensive and survey of 60,000 American households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Copyright 2006 Newsroom Solutions, LLC)