|
Serving up a Different System
By Sean M. Harris, in Current magazine (Winter 2005)
In a recent opinion piece in Current magazine, Vanderbilt University sophomore Sean M. Harris argues that a post-graduation service requirement could benefit the nation and college graduates alike. Upon graduation, many former college students feel pressured to immediately find a career-track job or begin graduate education, Harris notes; others feel overwhelmed by post-graduation uncertainty. But what would happen, Harris’s editorial asks, “if the government took all the anxiety out of the process of determining one’s immediate future by mandating that every student partake in a national service program after commencement”?
Although a mandatory national service program might seem like a radical proposal, Harris suggests that the recent catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina shows just how valuable such a program could be. “Had a national service program existed,” he says “vital manpower and organization would have been available immediately following Katrina.” In the absence of such a crisis, the government could employ recent graduates “in more mundane but nonetheless vital tasks,” whether in schools or hospitals or national parks. Such work would provide an important service to the United States and could help “to break down social, economic, and ethnic barriers.” It would also give graduates valuable real-world experience, says Harris—experience that could help them make more informed decisions about their future lives.
The full text of Sean Harris’s article is available from MSNBC. For more information about undergraduate service, see AAC&U’s civic engagement resources page and our Center for Liberal Education and Civic Engagement.
|
