Have you been turned down by Teach for America? Did DREAM stop responding to your blitzes? Did the Peace Corps laugh at you?
Nowadays, cutthroat competition is no longer reserved for the high-rolling analyst positions of lower Manhattan. Amazingly enough, volunteering in the underprivileged locales of America and the underdeveloped hamlets of the Third World has become the new Hot Ticket.
In a strange phenomenon, it takes more than just good intentions and a couple years of downtime to tackle the world's ills. Aspiring do-gooders must first survive rigorous selection processes and then make the cut. At face value, it seems hard to take issue with oodles of idealistic twentysomethings ready and willing to ditch the "safe" post-graduation option in favor of "saving the world." Call it "freakonomics," but there are definite downsides to the competitive market for highly-coveted volunteer spots.
Just look at Teach for America with its messianic, cult-like recruitment strategy. Its colorful advertisements are plastered all across Novack Cafe. Playing off my involvement with Hillel, the TFA campus agent dropped some Talmudic knowledge in a personal Blitz to me: "Teach for America has afforded [Jewish students] the opportunity to live out the tenets of tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (social justice) as they work to eliminate educational inequity." Countless other students have received similar creepily custom-tailored pleas. Oy.
With bare-knuckled tactics like these, TFA must be hurting for recruits, right? Nope. Last year, TFA admitted only 17 percent of its applicant pool. The Peace Corps accepted merely one-third of its hopefuls in 2007.
Inclusiveness and selflessness have always been at the heart of volunteering. Yet these intense application processes inevitably flush out winners and (many more) losers. As a result, in nonprofits these days, an aura of elitism comes with the private-sector degree of competition; TFA has even been billed as the Morgan Stanley of the not-for-profit world.
This is antithetical to the spirit of volunteering. Simply put, volunteer organizations should not be hailed as "prestigious." This shifts the focus away from those in need and toward the A-list status of the volunteers themselves.
Thanks to the fierce competition, landing a prized post in the esteemed volunteer organization has become an opportunity for recent grads to distinguish themselves and pad the Almighty rsum. TFA does not even hide this bonus.
The volunteer organization prominently boasts on its websit: "Teach for America ranks #10 on BusinessWeek's list of Best Places to Launch a Career." Referring to TFA and the Peace Corps, the economic rag commented: "These are nonprofits that have a reputation that will look good on a rsum." And while about half of TFA alums remain in education, usually on the administrative side, "many also interview for competitive jobs with investment banks and management consulting firms," according to an October 2005 New York Times spread.
Without a doubt, the mission of TFA -- and similarly popular programs -- remains noble and essential. The overwhelming majority of applicants have true hearts. Here's the hitch: In the Age of Competitive Volunteerism, a shade of self-interest taints a once wholly selfless endeavor.
Sure, TFA needs some vetting process to weed out the "To Catch A Predator" crowd and the less-than-responsible contenders. But at the end of the day, its aggressive recruitment campaign unnecessarily inflates its selectivity into the stratosphere. Super-qualified candidates could have been turned off by the daunting Numbers Game in applying to TFA. A tad counterintuitive, but the program should dampen its competitiveness and reduce its air of exclusivity. Less is more.
The same sensation of competitive volunteerism has taken Dartmouth by storm. Only one-third of student applicants to OLE and DREAM are actually selected as mentors to Upper Valley younglings. Step aside, Tiffany & Company: DREAM T-shirts are the new status symbols. At the same time, strikingly similar, though more inclusive and less glamorous, programs work under the radar of most students. Who has heard of Little Kids LEAD?
There is nothing wrong with undergrads clamoring to fix the world. But in this era of competitive volunteerism, next time you volunteer, step back and ask yourself: Who are you doing it for?
