The biology junior works at the campus center organizing students to volunteer at the Road Home homeless shelter three times a week to play with children while their parents attend meetings.

Though Barker was a Boy Scout growing up and volunteers as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the U. offered his first school-based opportunity to volunteer.

"Getting involved in your community is essential," the 22-year-old said. "Giving back and exposing yourself to other social circumstances and getting to know your state a little bit is important."

Many college students around the country have the same attitude, according to a report released Monday by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The federal agency found the number of college students who volunteer increased 20 percent from 2002 to 2005 to 3.3 million.

Utah leads the nation with the highest rate of volunteers, according to the report. Nearly half of Utah college students in 2005 reported some type of volunteer work, with the majority saying they act as volunteer mentors or teachers.

That does not surprise Curt Larsen, manager of student-directed programs at the U.'s Bennion Center, which helps students create and operate volunteer service projects.

He credits the Utah State Office of Education for encouraging service-learning classes in high schools and junior highs. Students in the classes learn the curriculum and incorporate service into the requirements. The U. and other Utah universities also offer such courses, which partially explains why student volunteerism is high.

The Bennion Center has 46 student-directed volunteer programs, and the U. offers service opportunities throughout campus, he said. All student clubs that are officially recognized by the student government must provide one service activity per semester, and large organizations such as the Greek system and the Latter-day Saints Student Association offer regular activities.

Making such opportunities more widely available and used is a goal of the federal agency that generated the report. Leaders hope to work with universities, nonprofit groups and other organizations to increase student volunteers each year to 5 million by 2010.

"This rise in college-student volunteering and the growing campus support for service are hopeful signs for the future of civic involvement in America," Steve Goldsmith, Corporation for National and Community Service chairman, said in a statement. "Higher education is a powerful engine of civic engagement and we are committed to to working with university and student organizations and the larger nonprofit sector to nurture this growing civic generation."

The national report highlighted the fact that 27 percent of student volunteers are likely to be "episodic" volunteers - meaning they volunteer fewer than two weeks a year - compared with 23.4 percent of the general adult volunteer population.

The Bennion Center offers a Freshman Volunteer Corps to introduce students to infrequent, larger volunteer opportunities with the hope students will get hooked on volunteering, Larsen said.

smcfarland@sltrib.com

Report highlights

* Utah had the highest rate in the nation of college student volunteers from 2002 to 2005, with a rate ranging between 46.2 percent and 49.7 percent.

* The rate for volunteering for 2003 to 2005 in Utah (48 percent) was higher than the three-year rate for the West as a whole (29 percent) and the nation (28.8 percent).

* From 2003 to 2005, volunteers in Utah spent a median of 96 hours annually on volunteer activities. This was higher than both the annual median hours for the West (56 hours) and the nation (51 hours).

* Volunteers in Utah were most likely to volunteer 100 to 499 hours annually (41 percent), the highest proportion of volunteers serving at this level in the nation.

* Utah also had the second-highest proportion of volunteers in the nation, donating 500 or more hours (8.2 percent).

* Utah volunteers were most likely to coach, referee, tutor, teach or mentor (57 percent).

Source: Corporation for National and Community Service