A study of the effect of a volunteer service program at an urban-based institution of higher education on the current level of service achieved by alumni who had participated in the program

The primary purpose of this research was to determine if students enrolled in a private, urban-based, research-oriented institution of higher education who participated in a volunteer community service-learning program will continue to provide volunteer service at a significant level as alumni. In addition, other variables including gender, ethnicity, time-elapsed-since graduation and income level were studied as to their impact on the volunteer service activities of alumni.; In order to research these questions, an ANOVA was conducted on the primary research question and the income variable. Chi-Square Analyses of Independence were conducted to test the impact of the ethnicity, gender and time-elapsed-since graduation variables.; There were two hundred and thirty-one randomly selected subjects in this study. The experimental group consisted of seventy alumni who had participated in the Johns Hopkins University Tutorial Project as undergraduates and a control group of one hundred and fifty-seven alumni who had not participated in the Tutorial Project. Each subject completed a survey which assessed their current level of volunteer service activity as measured by the Service Learning Model. The subjects' current level of service activity was compared to their level of service as undergraduates. Eleven participant and nine non-participant subjects were interviewed to further explore the perceived impact of the service-learning program.; The major findings of the study indicated that, while the.05 level of statistical significance was not attained, there were identifiable trends in which the alumni who were involved in the Tutorial Project were demonstrably more service-oriented than non-participants. African-Americans were more service-oriented than European and Asian-Americans, females were more service-oriented than males. Income level did not have an effect on the service activity level of alumni.; One of the control variables, time-elapsed-since graduation, was significantly related to the degree of participation of students as alumni at the.05 level of significance. Those alumni who had graduated ten years or more prior to the survey were more service-oriented than their younger counterparts.; In addition, the twenty interviews conducted demonstrated that participation in the Tutorial Project had an impact on career direction, life-long value of community service activity and increased validity of the survey instrument.