GoodWork Paper 36: “Framework Experiences": A Key to the Development of Social Responsibility in Young Adults

Author(s): Scott Seider

Editor(s): Jeff Solomon, Series Editor

Media: Paper

Description: This paper presents a model that documents the role of “framework experiences” in catalyzing a young adult‘s commitment to service-work. A “framework experience” shapes an individual‘s view of community and the role that he or she can assume within that community. In depth interviews were conducted with students at Harvard College who perform 10–20 hours of service-work each week. These interviews turned up an unexpected finding: during the week preceding their entry in college, seven of ten students had participated in an intensive service-orientation program called the First-Year Urban Program (FUP). Participants in this program spend each day working on service projects for Boston-area non-profit organizations and then gather together in the evenings to listen to speakers and participate in discussion groups on various issues of social justice and activism. Previous research on the origins of social commitment has stressed the importance of moral exemplars and the trait of moral giftedness. The surprisingly strong effect of this single “framework experience” adds to our understanding of the roots of community service. The students in our sample arrived at college with an ethic of care fostered in early life; but the weeklong immersion experience appears to have been crucial in converting this ethical orientation into a full commitment to service-work.