Approximately twenty years after the conclusion of Croatia’s war of independence, Croatia is still transitioning through its post-communism status. Since 2013, when Croatia gained admission into the EU, Croatian institutions of higher education and cultural organizations are attempting to shift the population’s negative perception toward volunteerism in order to create and expand their volunteer work force and implement a more structured service learning education element into the curriculum of institutions of higher education. A semi-structured interview format was utilized to allow employees of cultural organizations and students to freely discuss their impressions and opinions regarding the utilization of student volunteers. This paper examines attitudes toward volunteering from a historical perspective. When examining volunteerism in Southeastern Europe, it is important to consider that under communism, preservation of culture and social welfare was the responsibility of the State. Before Communism, cultural and social entities were the responsibility of organized religion and associations. Communist ideology embraced the concept of community involvement for societal improvement which resulted in State imposed “volunteerismâ€. Hence, volunteering was perceived as mandatory labor to compensate for the State’s inability to provide social and commercial necessities. As post-communist countries transition, it is still difficult to change the mentality of the general population to accept the idea of volunteering. Overall, most organizations demonstrated a willingness to consider student volunteers as service learning participants and students perceived positive externalities from applied concept learning. This paper concludes with suggestions for strategies to generate a positive cultural shift in attitudes towards volunteering.