COLUMN ONE : Answer to Idealism or Joblessness : Volunteer agencies are seeing a surge of interest from college seniors. For some students it’s a shift away from the Me Decade. For others, it’s mostly the path to a paycheck.

When he graduated from Northwestern University and fulfilled his Navy ROTC obligation, Marty Siewert did not anticipate that he would spend seven months unemployed, soberly pondering the real-world value of his college degree and military experience.

Discouraged and “just about to get panicky” over his job search, Siewert finally landed with a federal poverty-fighting program in Hollywood where, paradoxically, he tries to help others find employment.

“I’ve always been interested in social service, so this is a good opportunity to get a better feel for it,” said Siewert, sitting in the small, cluttered office from which he finds temporary jobs for teen-age runaways and homeless youths in an effort to get them off the streets. “Plus, with the economy the way it is, I feel lucky to be working here--or anywhere.”

Emblematic of a rise in volunteerism among college-age individuals that blends idealism with economic realities, Siewert recently began a one-year enlistment in Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the Great Society-era federal agency dedicated to alleviating domestic poverty.

A stagnant economy, changing attitudes toward volunteer work and heightened interest in world events have given organizations such as VISTA, the Peace Corps and Teach for America a higher profile on college campuses, generating applications at an unparalleled rate.

In the first week of January, for example, the Peace Corps’ Washington telephone lines were jammed with so many calls--nearly 900 a day at one point--that the system broke down, according to Mike Berning, the agency’s director of recruitment. At the same time last year, the Peace Corps’ information hot line drew 150 to 200 calls a day, Berning added.

The flood of young applicants eager for public service contradicts common assumptions about the supposed apathy of the twentysomething generation, conjuring up images of predecessors who responded to President John F. Kennedy’s “ask what you can do for your country” exhortation in the 1960s.

“College students are a lot more idealistic than the media give them credit for,” said Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp, whose program recruits graduates who majored in fields other than education to spend two years teaching in needy school districts.

Volunteerism, seen at best in recent years as a well-intentioned diversion from the fast track, is being increasingly viewed by college students as a logical entry point into the workplace instead of the postponement of a career.

“For me, this wasn’t a case of putting off the corporate world--it was a matter of choosing a job where I could work for social change,” said Eric Verhoogen, a Teach for America member who teaches mathematics at an inner-city Los Angeles high school.

Hundreds of other college students are making the same choice, underlining that commitment through their willingness to work for poverty-level salaries, often in drab, undesirable surroundings, in emotionally and professionally challenging jobs where psychic income is the dominant currency.

Siewert, for example, works out of a run-down Los Angeles Free Clinic office where the institutional dreariness is relieved only slightly by a view of the famous Hollywood sign. Because VISTA workers earn less than minimum wage--an average of $610 monthly, supplemented by a $95-per-month payment upon completion of service--he shares an apartment with another VISTA volunteer in a high-crime neighborhood.

A husky 26-year-old Milwaukee native with a soft-spoken manner and ready smile, Siewert seeks to persuade public and private employers to hire runaways and homeless youths between the ages of 16 and 23--a formidable task, given business’s reluctance to depend on troubled individuals with little in their present circumstances to justify confidence.

Most of the jobs offered are light labor or low-level clerical positions, though one unusual success story saw a homeless 20-year-old gain a bit part in “The Wonder Years” television show. Youths may participate in the program for a maximum of four months, and while that is sufficient time for some to begin turning around their lives, it is only a brief respite from the streets for others.

“The satisfaction is seeing some people gain stability in their lives, but the frustration is realizing it’s very difficult to help a lot of them,” Siewert said. “Still, every day, you feel like you have a chance to make a difference. You don’t get that with many jobs.”

VISTA officials say that is exactly what their agency offers to recruits.

Often referred to as the “domestic Peace Corps,” VISTA is seeing a surge in sign-ups on college campuses, in part because of a nationwide recruitment effort by the agency, its first in a decade. Hoping to capitalize on the growing receptivity to volunteerism on campuses, VISTA won congressional funding to hire nine regional recruiters, each of whom will target five campuses--and visit many others--in a drive that could bring in hundreds of recruits.

Recent visits to campuses in Los Angeles, Claremont and San Diego produced recruiting dividends, as VISTA staffers had no difficulty luring applicants for low-paying positions in programs that deal with homelessness, drug abuse, hunger and unemployment--and that often require out-of-state moves to work among society’s poorest and neediest.

College students already account for a growing share of VISTA’s 3,300-member volunteer force--about 240 of whom work in California--increasing from 11% in 1989 to 15% last year. People 55 and older make up another 20%, as do people without college degrees between 18 and 27. The remainder of the volunteers are widely distributed among other age groups.

During its 2 1/2-year-history, Teach for America also has struck a responsive chord on college campuses. When news of its establishment hit campuses in 1990, the organization received 2,500 applications for 500 positions. Last year, it had 3,100 applications and accepted 700 people, about 90% of them recent college graduates.

“There are so many (college) seniors wandering around absolutely unhappy with their options,” said Kopp, a 24-year-old Princeton graduate who developed the idea in a senior thesis. “They want to pursue an agenda they believe in and they want to make a difference.”

Kopp’s inspiration for Teach for America came at a 1988 San Francisco meeting dealing with ways to improve the nation’s educational system. Her subsequent 170-page thesis laid out the framework for a privately funded, nonprofit program designed to alleviate persistent teacher shortages in inner cities and rural areas.

In contrast to the subsistence allowances received by VISTA and Peace Corps workers, Teach for America volunteers are paid normal starting teacher salaries by local schools, ranging from $15,000 in rural Arkansas to $29,000 in Los Angeles. Several dozen major corporations, such as Mobil and Citicorp, have donated financing to cover the organization’s operating costs.

Even so, the teacher salaries are hardly substantial, and the primary appeal for Teach for America applicants is the challenge of tackling difficult urban and rural assignments.

“There’s a real esprit de corps atmosphere,” said Darrell Barker, an elementary school teacher in South-Central Los Angeles. “It gives teaching an esteem that makes it exciting.”

At the Peace Corps, meanwhile, the pendulum’s swing back toward volunteerism has been fueled by enthusiasm over serving in former Communist Bloc nations. Over the next year, the Peace Corps plans to open 250 to 500 field positions in the Commonwealth of Independent States, formerly the Soviet Union.

In 1991, the 30-year-old organization waded through 13,735 applications to fill just 3,800 trainee positions. Three months into 1992, the Peace Corps already has 1,100 more applicants than at this time last year and expects to surpass 1991’s figure by at least 3,000.

The Peace Corps draws about 45% of its volunteers from people 50 or older, largely because of foreign nations’ requests for experienced business professionals and environmental experts, according to recruiter Berning. But about 30% of the agency’s 6,000 field positions are filled with people between 23 and 28, and Peace Corps officials stress that needs and limited slots, not a lack of young applicants, are behind the aging of its staff.

Public Allies: The National Center for Careers in Public Life, which was formed last year, also is proving popular among young people. Its founder and executive director in Washington, 27-year-old Venessa Kirsch, plans to help place college graduates in organizations confronting such social concerns as the environment, child poverty, homelessness and campaign reform. For example, the center hopes to eventually assign recruits to organizations such as the Sierra Club, Common Cause and the Children’s Defense Fund as well as to local shelters for runaway youths or abused women.

With only about 90 slots in Washington, Chicago and Helena, Mont., to fill this year, it already has received hundreds of inquiries--at a time when center officials still are soliciting contributions from corporations and individuals.

“We’re hoping to prevent problems, not just deal with them,” Kirsch said. “We’re going after people who want to volunteer but are sick of working at homeless shelters every week and not feeling that what they’re doing is making a difference.”

From the perspective of some top federal administrators, the volunteer agencies’ resurgence on campus is seen as a return to 1960s-style idealism after the self-absorption of the Me Decade of the 1980s, when college graduates felt compelled to land high-paying jobs and quickly move up career ladders.

“The shortage of jobs certainly is pushing some students in this direction,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for ACTION, an umbrella organization that oversees domestic volunteer programs. “But you also need the idealism to be there, and we’ve certainly seen volunteerism increasing on campuses.”

While federal officials speak glowingly of the “revived spirit of volunteerism,” some recent applicants emphasize that theirs is an idealism born largely of economic necessity.

“This isn’t a ‘60s thing for me--I’m not a neo-hippy,” said USC senior Beth Lipton, a journalism major whose bleak job prospects have led her to consider joining VISTA. “I’m interested in doing something about literacy, but I’m also interested in finding a job. If you’ve got a job for me, I’ll skip VISTA. . . . But I know people with master’s (degrees) driving taxis. So I’m trying to be flexible.”

Similarly, Kristin Larson, a Pomona College senior, explained that the shock of seeing dozens of homeless people sleeping on the streets in Washington prompted her to consider signing up for VISTA. But she quickly added: “With the job situation being so scary, my idealism might leave, and I’d probably go for the money if I get a job offer.”

Anita Fuchslocher, a Teach for America kindergarten teacher in Los Angeles, admits being relieved when she was accepted by the program and no longer had to worry about overcoming difficult economic conditions in New England, where she went to college and where her family lives.

“I saw so many friends having trouble finding good jobs that I was really worried,” she said. “So I was happy when this came along.”

Even VISTA Director Patricia Rodgers in Washington detects a difference between the save-the-world idealism that drove many of the agency’s volunteers in the 1960s and the attitudes of current campus applicants.

“There’s a pragmatism that comes along with the idealism today,” Rodgers said. “People still want to accomplish something. But they’re not seeking to achieve the impossible. The attitude perhaps is a little more practical and realistic than what you found in the ‘60s.”

This brand of pragmatic compassion common among recruits is typified by VISTA volunteer Douglas May, who recently began working at Los Angeles’ Chrysalis project in a job-development program for the unemployed.

“I’m basically very, very conservative, so I’m skeptical about a lot of government programs,” May said. “But I like the idea of putting a federally paid volunteer in the hands of a private nonprofit organization. That’s much more effective.”

Ironically, while job shortages have drawn many college students to the doorstep of volunteer agencies, they also make some potential recruits hesitant to enlist. Kimberly Kilgour, Pomona College’s acting director of career development, said their fear is that by the time they emerge from the programs the “job market could get worse.”

For many volunteers, however, altruistic motivations override economic concerns.

Some even bypass lucrative private-sector alternatives, as did Jameson Hill, a 27-year-old Teach for America instructor in rural Louisiana who passed up a job in international banking to follow in the footsteps of an inspirational teacher.

“I wanted to help people the way she helped me,” Hill said of a high school French teacher who “made learning fun and exciting.”

The two became close friends, and years later, when Hill applied for the Teach for America program, the teacher wrote one of his letters of recommendation. What prevents the story from having a completely happy ending is that, about a week before Hill learned that he had been accepted, his former teacher died of cancer.

“She’s a big reason why I’m here,” Hill said. “She helped me see the joy of helping others and the value of working to improve the future.”

William Baldwin, a USC senior contemplating several volunteer options, added that many students are “learning that there’s more to being satisfied than making $50,000, $60,000 a year.”

“The ‘80s showed us that those values may be satisfying in the short run,” Baldwin said. “But eventually they go belly up. These programs have a lasting value that isn’t going to disappear.”

Pay and Opportunities Vary for Volunteers

Here is what some of the volunteer agencies offer:

PEACE CORPS: Peace Corps volunteers, who must be at least 18 years old, serve overseas in grass-roots development. The majority of volunteers serve in education. Other programs include small business development, environment, community development, health and nutrition. The Peace Corps was founded by Congress under President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Length of Service: Two years plus three months of training in the country of service.

Positions: An estimated 6,000. Available spots are determined by congressional funding.

Applications: 4,467 so far this year, with about 16,000 expected. Applications are accepted at any time.

Pay: Volunteers receive varying stipends each month, according to how much a local person would make. It is roughly $150 a month. Upon completion of service, volunteers receive a readjustment allowance of $4,800.

How to reach them: Peace Corps of the United States

1990 K St., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20526

Phone: 1-800-424-8580 ext. 2293

VISTA: Volunteers, 18 years or older, serve in low-income U.S. communities full time, with a commitment helping people improve their own lives. VISTA was founded by Congress under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Length of Service: 1 year.

Positions: An estimated 3,300. Available spots are determined by congressional funding.

Applications: Figures unavailable. Applications are accepted at any time.

Pay: VISTA volunteers average $610 a month. At the completion of service, volunteers receive $95 for each month served.

How to reach them: VISTA Recruitment

1100 Vermont Ave., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 10525

Phone: 1-800-424-8867

TDD Phone: (202) 606-5256.

TEACH FOR AMERICA: Teach for America is a national corps of teachers who teach in inner cities and remote rural public schools. Volunteers do not need teaching credentials but they do need an undergraduate degree. They must also take 14 units toward teaching credits at nearby colleges and universities (with free tuition) during their period of service. The idea for the service was developed in the fall of 1989, based on a senior thesis written by Princeton University student Wendy Kopp.

Length of Service: Two years.

Positions: Between 500-700 openings this year.

Applications: About 3,000 are expected. Applications are taken in January.

Pay: Salaries range from $15,000 to $29,000, depending on the district in which teachers are placed. The salaries are paid by schools.

How to reach them: Teach for America

P.O. Box 5114

New York, N.Y. 10185

Phone: 1-800-832-1230