Researchers such as Tinto (1993), Astin (1975) and Kuh (1995) have found that most students who are engaged with their college environment have a greater connection with the institution and in some instances, higher rates of persistence than non-engaged students. Today, colleges and universities offer a variety of extracurricular options such as student government, athletics and various clubs and organizations. In addition to these options, institutions are also offering students more opportunities to volunteer. Such opportunities include community service and service learning, which incorporates classroom material into activities outside the classroom. Florida State University (FSU) estimates that nearly 2,000 students participate in service activities each year. The goal of this study was to examine the effect of volunteering on two measures of academic achievement: grade point average and persistence from freshman to sophomore year. Student transcript data was provided by the Registrar. The study drew on the population of native FSU freshman for the 2006-07 academic year, which was comprised of 5,974 students. Of that population, 464 students earned at least one hour of service at Florida State University. Linear and logistic regressions were used to analyze four hypotheses related to the effect of the volunteering on academic achievement. These models predicted that for every hour of service that a student earns, their GPA would increase by .05. However, the results did not indicate a significant effect of volunteering on persistence from the Spring 2007 to Fall 2007 semester. The results of this study offer support for continued research of this topic, as there are several areas for further review of this relationship, particularly on campuses that are dissimilar to Florida State University, which has a very high persistence rate (nearly 90%) and has shown an obvious interest in service opportunities. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2010. / February 25, 2010. / Academic Achievement, Volunteering, Service, Persistence, Grade Point Average / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert A. Schwartz, Professor Directing Dissertation; Irene Padavic, University Representative; Joseph Beckham, Committee Member; Shouping Hu, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_180433 |
| Contributors | Parnell, Amelia R. (authoraut), Schwartz, Robert A. (professor directing dissertation), Padavic, Irene (university representative), Beckham, Joseph (committee member), Hu, Shouping (committee member), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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