Delivering the commencement address before 5,500 Ohio State University graduates and degree recipients, Bush renewed the effort begun after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to involve millions of Americans in purposeful community service.
"Service is not a chain or a chore - it gives direction to your gifts and purpose to your freedom," Bush said.
While skeptics believe the spirit of idealism engendered by the Sept. 11 attacks is fading, America's young people have the opportunity to determine whether that spirit is "the break of a wave or the rise of a tide," Bush told the audience gathered at Ohio Stadium.
"You will determine whether we become a culture of selfishness and look inward - or whether we will embrace a culture of service and look outward," the president said.
Bush said he is confident of the results.
"Your class and generation understand that the responsibility which begins in your life must extend to your nation," he said. "And so you will make a culture of service a permanent part of American life."
"By sharing the pain of a friend, or bearing the hopes of a child, or defending the liberty of your fellow citizens you will gain satisfaction that cannot be gained in any other way," Bush said.
Bush, who received an honorary doctor of public administration degree during the ceremonies, announced a new clearinghouse feature of the USA Freedom Corps Website. It will allow Americans to type in their zip code and, via links to more than 20,000 service organizations, instantly identify volunteer opportunities just "minutes away from their homes," said Freedom Corps director John Bridgeland.
After the graduation ceremonies, Bush was continuing on to Houston to highlight, by visiting a summer reading camp, the kinds of things volunteers can do.
While in Houston, he was also raising $1.2 million for Gov. Rick Perry's re-election campaign and another $500,000 for the Texas state GOP.
In Ohio, the graduates and more than 55,000 family members and friends listened as Bush spoke of the importance of volunteerism, and opportunities for service offered by the USA Freedom Corps, the Peace Corps and other organizations.
The White House touted the speech as the president's first to a graduating class at a civilian university since Sept. 11. He addressed the class of 2002 at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on June 1.
Bush was invited to speak at the Ohio State commencement by representatives of the graduating class. But immediately before class members filed into the giant football stadium, an announcer instructed the crowd that all the university's speakers deserve to be treated with respect and that anyone demonstrating or heckling would be subject to expulsion and arrest. The announcer urged that Bush be greeted with a "thunderous" ovation.