The job market may be rough, but Columbia and Barnard are hoping the time is right to promote careers in community service.
Campus career services continue to develop grant programs and fellowships specifically for not-for-profit work, and the University reports that graduates’ employment in government and service careers has jumped.
Data from the Columbia’s Graduating Student Survey demonstrates an increase from 2008 to 2009 in the percentage of graduates working in the not-for-profit or public/government sector. In 2008, 9.6 percent of survey respondents reported employment in the not-for-profit sector and 15.2 percent in the public/government sector. In 2009, 18 percent of survey respondents reported employment in the not-for-profit sector and 23.8 percent in the public/government sector.
“In the wake of the global financial crisis, CCE has observed increased interest in this area,” Kavita Sharma, dean of Columbia’s Center for Career Education, said. “CCE has responded by enhancing and creating programs to inform students about the many career paths available in this field and connect employers with interested students.”
The Office of Career and Development at Barnard College has also been pushing job and internship opportunities in the public sector. Will Simpkins, the Program Director of Community and Diversity Initiatives, said that the relationship between the New York City Civic Engagement Program and the Barnard office “creates numerous opportunities for students to think about the relationships between their involvement in community service, internships, and career planning.”
According to Simpkins, the Alumnae and Donor Sponsored Internship Grant Program, which funds over 200 students with a total grant amount of close to $250,000, has a larger number of grants reserved for student internships in public service or with nonprofit organizations.
And the Van Amson Service Fellowship—created by the nonprofit group Community Impact, which boasts community service on campus—gave selected students the opportunity to work for a local not-for-profit organization, intern at CI, or conduct research for a Columbia professor. Students also receive a $3000 stipend and free housing.
“It’s a nice change of pace for those not interested in stereotypical Columbia internships such as banking or consulting,” Mackenzie Yang, CI External Affairs Officer, said.
Alani Gregory, CC ’10, who received the fellowship in the summer of 2009, worked with CI to improve the resources available to coordinators of their 25 volunteer programs.
“As I researched all of Community Impact’s programs, my belief in the necessity for non-profit organizations was reaffirmed,” she said in an email. “This experience has shown me that there are a plethora of conventional and non-conventional ways in which underserved communities can be serviced.”
CI also launched a new option for Barnard and Columbia undergraduates this year—an opportunity to assist in designing a service learning course with a professor in the American studies department at Columbia College.
But while interest in the non-profit sector may be up, Simpkins said it has traditionally been consistent.
“Interest in the public or not-for-profit sector has always been high at Barnard,” he said. “In surveys of recent graduates, going back several decades, the public sector is consistently one of the top three fields that alumnae work in.”
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