Harvard student Julie Zauzmer turned 20 on January 22, and her birthday couldn't have been better: She got to working the overnight shift at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter. That might seem an extraordinary act of selflessness for someone turning 20. But there's increasing evidence that commitment to community service is becoming much more ordinary to today's young adults. "Young adults are doing more volunteer service than in any point in history,'' said Scott Seider, an assistant professor of education at Boston University who studies the civic development of young adults. At Harvard, the Winthrop Street Homeless Shelter is one of 86 social service programs associated with the Phillips Brooks House Association, which is a student-run nonprofit organization. Students can work with deaf children, bring pets to nursing homes, and prepare Chinese students to become US citizens, and so on. Volunteerism develops well outside of colleges, too. Applications to AmeriCorps have risen to a very high level, jumping from 91,399 in 2008 to 258,829 in 2010. City Year, which puts young people in high-poverty schools as tutors and mentors for at-risk students, has had a 140 percent increase in applications since its 2007-2008 service year. Citizen Schools, which uses volunteers to work with students in middle schools, has had a 28 percent jump in applicants between 2008 and 2009. "Most of my friends know it's their duty to give back before they settle down,'' said Samantha Wolf, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate serving with City Year in a Mattapan school. City Year corps member Antonio Gutierrez, 22, graduated last year from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and is applying for admission to law schools, but this year he is tutoring and mentoring students at the Blackstone Elementary School in the South End. "I grew up in similar circumstances,'' said Gutierrez, who said he was a weak student until enrichment programs changed his academic trajectory  . Raised by a single mother in low-income housing across the street from City Year's South End Headquarters, he used to watch the red-jacketed corps members come and go, and decided to become one someday. What do we know about Antonio Gutierrez?
He wants to give back as a volunteer. He has always been an excellent student. He never expected to become a volunteer. He now works as a teacher.