Young people sometimes are caricatured as self-absorbed creatures, interested mostly in what they can download on their iPods, buy at the mall, text on their cell phones, or post on Facebook.

In reality, today's young Americans are tuning into politics, and engaging in the world around them in ways that often go unnoticed.

In fact, young people — who belong to what often is called the "millennial generation" — are volunteering in record numbers.

They are popularizing the "alternative spring break" — rehabilitating hurricane-ravaged neighborhoods in New Orleans, for instance, or building houses in impoverished parts of Appalachia.

They are distributing food to low-income kids, baby-sitting children in shelters, and tutoring children in city schools.

Earlier this month, Aaron's Acres — a camp for kids aged 5 to 21 with developmental disabilities — got under way on the grounds of the Lancaster Jewish Community Center.

Celebrating its 10th year, Aaron's Acres depends on teen volunteers, who serve as buddies to the campers.

Among the dozen or so volunteers was Sarah Dirkmaat, a 16-year-old rising junior at Manheim Township High School. Dirkmaat's older brother was an Aaron's Acres volunteer before her; siblings following other siblings in volunteering at the camp seem to be an Aaron's Acres tradition.

Dirkmaat is matter-of-fact about committing 10 summer mornings to working at the camp. It can be challenging but, she said, "I just love the kids."

Rebecca DeSantis is just 14, and going into her freshman year at Hempfield High School, but this is her third summer volunteering at Aaron's Acres. "It gives you a different look at things," she said.

Kim Parker, 16, another volunteer at the camp, will be a junior at Manheim Township High School. She said she and her two sisters were "brought up the right way — to get involved, help out as much as you can."

Similar ethic
Apparently, a great many of today's teens have been imbued with a similar ethic.

According to the Corporation for National & Community Service, the rate of volunteering among older teenagers is more than double what it was in 1989.

A federal study conducted by that organization found that 15.5 million teens volunteered in 2004, contributing more than 1.3 billion hours of service. The study concluded that the teen volunteering rate was nearly twice that of the adult rate.

Young Americans also are engaging in the political process. According to Circle, The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, more than 6.5 million young people under the age of 30 participated in the 2008 primaries and caucuses, marking a dramatic increase over previous general-election years.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is not the only force behind this trend toward youthful engagement, but he's encouraging it, and benefiting from it.

"The whole Obama thing — change is in the air," said Susan Dicklitch, director of Franklin & Marshall College's Ware Institute for Civic Engagement. "There is a feeling that people can make an impact."

Indeed, in announcing recently that service would be a central cause of his presidency, Obama was speaking a language his youthful listeners understood.

Obama vowed to expand the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps programs. And he said he would call on college students to volunteer 100 hours a year, and middle and high school students to give 50 hours.

Speaking in Colorado, Obama said he's heard cynics say that "young Americans won't serve their country — they're too selfish, or too lazy."

But he added, "That's not the America that I've seen throughout this campaign. I've seen young people work, and volunteer, and turn out in record numbers."

Large age group
Young people not only are turning out in record numbers — they exist in record numbers.

When native-born Americans, as well as immigrants, born between 1982 and 2002, are all counted, they ultimately will number more than 100 million, said Neil Howe, co-author with the late William Strauss of the book, "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation."

This will make the millennial generation larger than any previous American generation, including the baby boomers, Howe said.

Born during the baby-on-board era to boomer parents who considered parenting a high art (and sometimes, a competitive sport), millennials are close to their parents, and they are very interested in having families of their own, Howe said.

"Millennials all think they're special," he maintained. "They came along when everybody was into kids. Everybody was into cocooning."

Government and other public institutions, even the media, have seemed to them to be intent on "doing good things for kids," and so millennials have more trust in those institutions than their more cynical Generation-X predecessors, Howe said.

Millennials have been accused of being narcissistic, but in Howe's view, they are channeling their high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem for the greater good. Having been raised in a child-centered age, they're often particularly keen to help children, he said.

Millennials, he said, have "an incredible sense of teamwork and camaraderie," and they believe in community-building. They spend a good deal of time connecting with each other, via text-messaging and social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, he noted.

Because "they think collectively that they're special," Howe said, they think that "special things are being asked of them."

Affected by 9/11
Many of them were still in elementary school Sept. 11, 2001, but they were affected by the cataclysmic events of that day nonetheless.

"Even though I was in the fourth grade, I can still remember it," said Sarah Dirkmaat, recalling how her mother broke down and wept on 9/11.

Hurricane Katrina also had a significant impact, according to educators.

Melvin R. Allen, executive director of Millersville University's Civic and Community Engagement and Research Project, said young people were moved to action by televised images of traumatized Americans, pleading from New Orleans for food, water, medical attention, rescue.

But, he said, "I would say students were ready to respond, or they wouldn't have responded to Katrina."

Allen said that in the 1990s, there was a movement in education toward preparing students to be more engaged citizens. Schools began to offer more opportunities for "service learning," in which students work on service projects that are tied to academics and meet genuine community needs.

In 1992, Maryland mandated that students, in order to graduate from high school, would need to accumulate 75 hours of service.

In Pennsylvania public schools, service isn't mandated, but graduation projects are, and some schools allow students to do service projects to fulfill this requirement.

Some school organizations require members to do community service projects. And some private schools require that students fulfill a certain number of service hours.

Cynics say that if it's required, it isn't really volunteering. Cynics also suggest that this youthful volunteering is a function of resume-building — of teens doing what they need to make themselves more appealing to college admissions officers.

These factors may draw young initially into community service, "but I don't think that they stay in it because of that," said Charlene Gray, executive director of Pennsylvania Campus Compact, which provides civic engagement and service-learning resources to member colleges, including Millersville, F&M and Elizabethtown College.

Gray said millennials tend to be "active learners," so they respond to service learning. They grew up with the Internet as a fact of their existence, too, Gray said, noting, "They operate in this surreal virtual life — and service gives them real life."

Allen, of Millersville, was an undergraduate student when campuses were roiled by anti-Vietnam War and civil-rights protests. By contrast, the 1980s were marked by the kind of individualism preached by President Ronald Reagan, he said.

Now, he said, America is experiencing a new cycle of activism. Young people today may not be staging huge war protests, but they are leading the fight against global warming; they are seeking to bring attention to the crisis in Darfur, and they are quietly seizing service opportunities, Allen said.

Lisa Wolfe, associate director of F&M's Ware Institute, said young people today "are getting it — they are getting the big picture. ... And they're actually ending up being more engaged than we ever were."

Rock the world
Charlene Gray has an 18-year-old son who volunteers with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. "He and his friends, I'm telling you what, they're going to rock the world," she said.

Ryan Clemo, 18, went to New Orleans last October to build a Habitat for Humanity house with his father, Bill Clemo, and his grandfather, Bob Bachman.

The young man said the experience changed his life "in a colossal way."

He initially got involved with Habitat for Humanity because he had elected to do service for his Warwick High School graduation project.

Last week, he returned to New Orleans to build Habitat houses with 150 young people from Harrisburg churches.

Clemo, who will attend Kutztown University, sees himself volunteering with Habitat in the years to come. "It's a really great feeling that you get from knowing that you helped someone else," Clemo said. "Even though I don't see the reactions of the people that I'm helping, it's great to know that I'm doing something worthwhile for someone."

Kathan Teepe, a 20-year-old student at Franklin & Marshall, is among a dozen students who are taking part in that college's Public Service Summer Internship program. The students are paid a stipend for their summer work, but to be selected for an internship, they need to have demonstrated a commitment to public service.

Teepe, who hails from Rhode Island, has a double major in Spanish and environmental studies. She interned earlier this summer with Dig It!, an urban-farming program for at-risk youths run by the Threshold Foundation. She now is helping to set up programming for homeless families residing at the Transitional Living Center.

Teepe has a dizzying array of volunteer commitments. "I just enjoy getting involved," she said, "and I hate to be bored."

She developed an environmental education after-school program for one Lancaster elementary school, and has tutored students at another city school. She's the secretary for F&M Oxfam, which raises awareness about hunger, poverty and injustice. With several other F&M students, she has started a baby-sitting program for families at the Transitional Living Center.

And Teepe is among the students launching a green theme house at F&M.

Next semester, she and 22 other students will live together in an environmentally friendly house. They will commit to buying local, organic food; they'll pledge to take showers lasting no longer than five minutes; and they'll grow their own produce. Teepe will co-manage the house's garden with another student.

Teepe intends to work in the nonprofit sector after she graduates. "There doesn't seem like much of a point if you're not doing something that you're passionate about," she said.

Meredith Morgan is another of F&M's public service interns. A neuroscience major who hopes to go to medical school, Morgan is interning at SouthEast Lancaster Health Services, which provides medical and dental care to people in need.

A 21-year-old from West Chester, Morgan is a tutor during the school year at a Lancaster city school. She also volunteers twice a week at a program for children with autism.

The latter is not an easy gig: One day, an autistic boy bit her on her back. "I left there, I was almost in tears," Morgan said. "I called my dad. My back was bloody. My head hurt."

But she told her dad she had no intention of quitting. "You have to be passionate about it," she said. "You have to want to help."

---

Suzanne Cassidy is a staff writer for the Sunday News. Her e-mail address is scassidy@lnpnews.com.