Please. I’m doing an Americorps stint right now. What is stopping recent college grads from doing this is the money! I get about $1900/month (not even minimum wage of $15/hr in this city) as a stipend, a bus ticket, and not very good health insurance (I kept my own). I was offered several schools in the ‘inner city’ but couldn’t accept those assignments because the commute for me would have been more than 1 hour each way on top of the 40+ hours we are expected to put in. I’m old, retired, and don’t want to put in 50+ hour weeks as a volunteer! There are volunteers on food stamps (the stipend is taxable but not considered income for public benefits). If we complete 1200 hours (Aug-May), the we get 3/4 of a Pell grant as an educational award (to pay for college or pay back student loans) of about $4500; 900 hours (Oct-May) gets you $3000. They aren’t forgiving all student loans. The maximum educational stipend you can earn is 2 years of Pell grant or about $12.5k, and a max of 4 years to get that 2 years of time logged.
During normal times, student loans would be put into deferment status, but the interest would continue to accrue during that time. That loan balance could be growing a lot each month, and not helping the student in the long run.
Who can take jobs as lawyers, doctors, teachers in city or rural areas at a very reduced pay? Rich recent grads who can support themselves (or have parents willing to continue paying room and board) and may not even have student loans to repay. I can only do this because I have retirement income and a place to live. Most of the volunteers in my program are very young (some just out of high school) or retired people.
I could make more money working at Starbucks.