Chapter 9: “I Want to Make a Difference”

SUMMARY

“I want to make a difference,” say young people involved in Youth-in-Government, Public Achievement, and Youth Science Center. And we believe that they mean it. Indeed, the power and meaning of these projects lies in the spaces each creates for young people to do precisely that-work on meaningful issues on which they can “make a difference” beyond themselves, in a public way. What are the sources of this yearning to matter and to be of consequence? An underused approach to an answer is found in the concept of vocational call in its religious and secular meanings. An introduction to vocation as call and as worldly address and compelling response places young people's yearning in a larger frame with a vibrant history, one in part found in the literature on politics and citizenship. Responsive, responsible, lived-citizenship is one way to live the call to a meaningful and consequential life, for young people and adults. Wanting to “make a difference” is an ideal-type and everyday motive which can lead to anger, frustration or caring, and to the human services and/or to political involvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Vocation
• care
• situational accounts
• civic duty
• citizenship
• social worlds
• youth civic engagement