How education shapes volunteer motivation and experience: Lessons from master gardeners and watershed stewards during COVID-19

This study investigates how educational attainment shaped the motivations and experiences of Extension Master Gardeners (MGs) and Master Watershed Stewards (MWSs) during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic’s disruptions provided a unique context for examining how volunteers with differing educational backgrounds engaged with Extension programming and adapted their roles. This research is part of a larger project that examined the relationships between volunteer leadership competencies and stewardship behaviors within Penn State Extension's MG and MWS programs. An online questionnaire was distributed to 3,000 volunteers, yielding 1,196 responses (39.9% response rate). Of these, 331 participants (27.7%) provided open-ended responses describing their motivations and experiences, which were analyzed in this study. A mixed-methods design integrated thematic analysis, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, natural language processing, and principal component analysis (PCA). Results indicated that volunteers with graduate degrees frequently assumed strategic and leadership-oriented roles emphasizing virtual engagement and innovation, while those without graduate degrees focused on hands-on service, community outreach, and applied learning. Despite these variations, both groups demonstrated resilience and a strong commitment to service. Findings underscore the importance of aligning volunteer roles with educational backgrounds to enhance engagement, satisfaction, and program effectiveness. Implications for Extension programming and future research are discussed.