What is a possible counterclaim to the argument that community service should be required? While the volunteer rates of teenagers remained quite low in 1974 and 1989, we find that volunteering rates for individuals aged 16 to 19 actually doubled between 1989 and [2005] — to a rate that exceeds the national volunteer rate …. Increased enthusiasm for volunteering among today’s young people is reflected in other research as well. For example, the Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) found an all-time high in the percentage of first-year college students who indicated that there was a high probability that they would volunteer or participate in community service sometime during their college careers. The Corporation’s College Students Helping America report recently highlighted a 20 percent increase in the number of college students volunteering between 2002 and 2005, while the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future study also finds a rising trend in volunteering among teens.

—Corporation for National and Community Service, “Volunteer Growth in America: A Review of Trends Since 1974”