Using a volunteerism framework to understand the motivations of university students who facilitate informal physics programs

Abstract

Many university students who participate in public engagement do so voluntarily through informal physics programs. The motivations and reasoning students have for volunteering in the first place and continuing to volunteer vary. For some students, volunteering in informal physics programs can influence their career path after leaving the program. For this research study, we interviewed university alumni about their past experiences as student volunteers and the career path they have had since leaving the program. We apply a volunteerism framework to our data to 1) see how it maps onto an informal physics context and 2) understand the evolution of volunteers' motivations from their initial informal physics volunteer experiences to their present lives. As this study is meant to test the volunteerism framework, we will focus on alumni who continued into education-related careers given that informal physics programs are educational in nature.