Esen Kurdoglu, a fourth year senior at Tulane University from Orange County, Calif., who visited the school post-Katrina, said she was drawn to New Orleans.

“[It has] a culture unlike any other,” she said. “The music, the nightlife, the food – all of it was so different from Orange County. I also knew that volunteer opportunities would be abundant.”

Alongside a platter of cultural delicacies, the city now offers a robust service-oriented community charged with reinvigorating a devastated town. It is the ultimate public works project in the most agreeable of climates.

“Katrina offers a new frontier for people who care about social change,” said David Eisner, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, in a USA Today interview.

An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 service oriented professionals have permanently settled in the city since the storm, and the type of student that remains post-graduation is decidedly more philanthropic since Tulane instituted a service requirement as a graduation prerequisite for all students.

Chris West, a recent Tulane graduate living in New Orleans, said he has noticed a change in the type of students moving to the city.

“The Northeasterners who come to school down here for the warm weather and party life are still around, but there are less of them,” he said. “There are a lot more people coming here believing that they need to and ought to make a difference with the city’s recovery.”

Tulane and Loyola universities are among the most easily read barometers for outside interest in the city. Each school boasts diverse national and international populations that comprise about half of the student bodies.

Tulane’s 2008 freshman profile reflects the school’s status as an out of state bastion: nearly 85 percent is from outside Louisiana. The region that is most represented is the Northeast, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all incoming freshman.

All 50 states are represented in Loyola’s student body.

Some students think living in New Orleans now is akin to a year spent abroad; the culture has had so much of the traditional American abundance sucked out of it that it resembles another country altogether.

“[It was] like living in the capitol of a Third World country,” said Jabar Whittier, a Tulane undergraduate. “The interstates were open but all the lights were out.”

Why students and professionals choose to come here in the wake of such a culture altering disaster is important in trying to re-establish the city’s identity.

The city’s projected image, what exactly it represents to outsiders, is tied to what kinds of people choose to relocate to it.

Before Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into the epicenter of an ongoing dialogue about social justice and environmental awareness, national perception of the Big Easy was considerably less discerning.

“When I visited Tulane for the first time with my parents,” said Kurdoglu. “My dad avoided Bourdon Street at all costs. He was afraid it was crowded with half naked, Mardi Gras zombies.”

That kind of apprehension was a typical response to the city’s rowdy, pre-Katrina days, but newcomers to New Orleans face a much less genial demon.

Imminent social woes have replaced a romanticized view of the French Quarter; rather than plan a visit to New Orleans around its festivities, people are streaming in to help the rebuilding process.

New Orleans is experiencing a “brain gain,” Eisner said. A mix of young college graduates and experienced professionals are coming in to lend their talents in an effort to revive the city.

The National and Community Service Corporation reports that over 1,000 individuals have signed up with AmeriCorps, “to meet education, environmental, public safety, and other pressing needs in communities across Louisiana,” this year.

The Learn and Serve Program, which also falls under the Corporation’s umbrella of public service organizations, makes efforts to engage 13,000 Louisiana students, “in community service linked to academic achievement and the development of civic skills,” according to its Web site.

Of the 25 Tulane graduates accepted into Teach for America, seven will be assigned to schools in uptown New Orleans, according to Tulane University’s online newsletter.

West, a native of New Hampshire and a history major, believed that attending school in New Orleans would equal a productive and fun college experience.

“No other place provides the kind of opportunity to witness a living history,” he said. “There’s a fracture in the city’s timeline: New Orleans pre-Katrina and New Orleans post-Katrina. I’m glad to be a part of that history.”An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 service oriented professionals have permanently settled in the city since the storm.