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Hearing from Youth as Well as About Them
An audio interview with Richard Fernandes

So much has been written about youth as volunteers, but most often by adults. These adults do work with young volunteers, and teenagers and university students have been surveyed directly by researchers. Yet we rarely hear directly from young people in journals such as this one.

Richard Fernandes is a 19-year-old freshman at Drexel University in Philadelphia . Since age 14 he has been an enthusiastic participant in volunteer projects and quickly became a leader, urging and coordinating his peers to get involved. Richard explodes many stereotypes about who volunteers and why – he’s male, African-American, urban, and started his community service as a requirement of residence in a special college prep program for disadvantaged youth.

Learn what Richard thinks are the reasons why young people volunteer and what volunteer program managers need to do to recruit and work with youth. Read about his experiences and listen to his ideas in the accompanying audio interview.

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