By Saidouri Zomaya, Graduate Student Assistant in the Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies
New research was just published about university student volunteering. If you would like to read the complete article, you can read it online here. The following is a summary and analysis of the article, which we refer to as a research translation.
This article explores how false myths and misconceptions can negatively impact the university student volunteering experience. Specifically, the study focuses on university students, host organizations, and universities participating in volunteering activities. The study aims to uncover the impediments to success and determine beneficial practices based on stakeholders’ standpoints and experiences.
The authors argue that once stories are accepted within an organization, they can evolve to become ingrained in the culture of that organization, where they begin to impact decisions and behaviors. The study was based on a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were carried out with student volunteers, university staff, and nonprofit organization representatives in Australia.
Participants were asked to share their thoughts and perspectives on the benefits and challenges they experienced.
Two categories emerged from the data collection: Myths and Developing Myths.
Myths:
- Students are Unreliable: This referred to instances when student volunteers either failed to attend or changed rostered activities at the last minute and students who slowly stopped volunteering.
- Students are Hard Work: The concept that working with volunteer students is harder than working with other volunteers stems from various sources such as universities seeking to have written agreements, having specific performance requirements, or requesting host organizations to report back on the student volunteer’s performance.
- Hosts Don’t Have the Skills or Time to Supervise: This myth refers to how universities may view host organizations that they partner with to provide volunteering services as unable to mentor nor advise students well enough because they lack the necessary skills to do so.
Developing Myths:
- Hosts Don’t Always ‘Value’ Student Volunteers: This developing myth stems from evidence that some of the assigned volunteer activity was considered boring to students as it was viewed as below their skill level. This resulted in a decline in their engagement, especially for students loo
- king to boost their employability.
- Students Need to ‘Hide’ Instrumental Motives: This refers to the notion that some students volunteer to enhance their employability, yet they feel that they couldn’t share their intentions with the organization as they may be denied the opportunity to volunteer there.
Discussion
As a result of such findings, authors conclude that myths usually arise as a result of real events that take place, even if it is just one incident, and it is through the act of sharing these stories about these events and repeating them that they become magnified and internalized within organizations. The authors explain how it is not only crucial to acknowledge such myths but also to understand how to manage or minimize them when they are faulty and could potentially lead to poor decisions. By further examining the data about each identified myth and developing myth, the authors propose four initial steps to help change the narrative about university student volunteering:
- Educate stakeholders (i.e., hosts, universities, and students) on the diversity of students to help foster authentic engagement with student volunteers.
- Recognize and ‘call out’ myths that are shared without any supporting evidence.
- Challenge speculations made about incidents that may generate or perpetuate myths and look for causes to help come up with resolutions to help prevent such incidents from arising again.
- Assure that reports of success and achievements become more prevalent by supplying a proof for more genuine perspectives.
The authors conclude the article by noting that attaining the full advantages for all stakeholders can only be accomplished when there is a shared understanding, explicit expectations, and a continuous honest dialogue among all parties, which are all essential practices for overseeing volunteers.
Additional Resources
- Share your volunteer opportunities for NIU students with the Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies (email jaread@niu.edu).
- Apply here to have your organization added to the pre-approved list for the Huskies Give Back program.
- Read another blog post based on an article about nonprofit organizations and students in a college town. Their findings suggest a mismatch been the needs of nonprofit organizations and the availability of students.
