What is most important to Redwood students? Results of this month’s Bark survey of the student body should give us all hope.

While it might be assumed that a typical teenager desires fame and a high paying career, Redwood students veer from this stereotype.

This month’s Bark survey showed 32.5 percent of Redwood students believe helping others is most important.After that, 28.8 percent said “becoming a good parent” was most important, and in third place, 13.1 percent of students value  “having a successful marriage” the most.

The Bark survey data showed that just 11.3 percent of Redwood students think that having a high-paying job is the most important part of life.

When broken down by gender, boys chose “being a good parent” as most important to them, with 28.8 percent  of boys choosing this response. The next most popular response for boys was “helping others” at 21.3 percent and then “having a high paying career” at 15.0 percent.

Girls, however, chose “helping others” much more commonly than any other response at 43.8 percent. The next most common response for girls was “being a good parent” at 23.8 percent and then “having a successful marriage” at 13.8 percent.

Social researchers who have been dissing Generation Y, those born between the 1980s and the early 2000s, say the generation is relatively disinterested in politics and religion, engaged less in face-to-face communication, and burdened by debt.

Junior Brian Finci is one of the 32.5 percent of Redwood teens who believe that helping others is the most important part of life. Finci has been playing sports with the mentally disabled through the organization REC Inc. for the past few years, and feels a sense of pride every time he volunteers.

“Every Monday when I go volunteer, it makes me feel less selfish. Knowing that I’m thinking about others gives me a greater feeling of accomplishment than I think I would standing behind a counter in a paying job,” Finci said.