Editorial: Hope for the future

Sunday, June 17, 2007 | 7:03 a.m.

C ommunity service organizations are seeing an increase in applications from college graduates, and it is encouraging to see more young people look for an opportunity to serve.

USA Today reported on Wednesday that the federal program AmeriCorps has seen a 77 percent increase in applications since 1999. More than 13,000 graduates applied this year. Teach for America, which puts graduates in public schools in low-income areas, received 19,000 applications in 2006, a 40 percent increase in two years. The federal Peace Corps, which sends volunteers across the globe, received 12,242 applicants last year, an increase of 37 percent from 2001.

Programs are becoming even more selective than before and, in some cases, are finding themselves competing against each other for the best applicants. Those selected typically receive a small stipend or money toward paying off student loans in return for plenty of work.

In the AmeriCorps program, for example, participants work with community groups and public agencies doing any number of tasks, including working in illiteracy programs and building affordable housing. They receive about $9,300 for living expenses for the year they serve and a $4,725 award to pursue further education or pay off student loans.

The graduates who go into these and similar programs are doing important work and giving back to the community.

Maureen Quigley worked as an environmental consultant, which she said was lucrative, but "too dry and not engaging." She left to serve in AmeriCorps and works teaching children in an environmental education project. She teaches about the aquatic life - such as crabs, mussels and starfish - living in the Providence River in Rhode Island along the banks of a former landfill that has since been cleaned up. She is thrilled when students start firing questions about what they have seen and touched.

"It means a lot to me that we have been a catalyst," Quigley said. "It sort of plants a seed of hopefulness."

The fact that there are more people like her who want to help the community gives us plenty of hope for the future.