A
arkenstone
I've been trying to get some relevant volunteer hours with mixed success, and I'm still going to need a good 80 hours over the next 6 months. First, here's what I've been doing that has not panned out as well as I'd like:
I managed to conquer the VA bureaucracy and become a volunteer musician (I finished a music degree a couple years ago), but they assigned me to the psych ward and--maybe I'm a bad person--but that's a rough gig to say the least. In any case it's not easy to get a ton of hours with their format. I've also managed to get in with a sort of 'volunteer musician agency' that will be taking me around to different hospitals, but likewise it's difficult to get more than an hour each week, and I won't be in town every week.
There's a dental clinic local to me, and I've pestered the coordinator a bunch and got a grand total of 2 hours, but they don't really appear to need a lot of help, and I'm competing with a ton of other kids for those hours.
My brother-in-law is director of development for a dental clinic, but unfortunately it's 3 hours away. He's going to try to get me volunteer time in the spring since their screenings are on Sundays, but that's still going to be rough doing it all semester.
I'm doing my old chemistry professor a favor and assisting him in lecture, answering questions and helping with in-class assignments. I'm not getting college credit for it and though I could have received a minuscule stipend I told him not to worry about it so I could potentially use it as volunteer hours. It will be about 30 hours for this past semester, but I'm not sure if this is admissible as a volunteer activity. (Would this look totally manufactured if I called it volunteer hours on my application?)
In any case---the best thing would be for me to get some good hours over the holidays. My sister works for a company that helps hospitals with infection control procedures, so she has contacts in almost every hospital in her state. She could have a couple options for me, but most of them are probably going to be in a volunteer gray area---of basically being a normal job or project that's only a 'volunteer activity' because I'm doing it for free.
Question 1) none of her activities are going to be dental related. Is that OK?
Question 2) How do I make the most of that gray area? If it's in the service of a non-profit hospital, does that make it legitimately 'volunteer'? Am I overthinking this?
I managed to conquer the VA bureaucracy and become a volunteer musician (I finished a music degree a couple years ago), but they assigned me to the psych ward and--maybe I'm a bad person--but that's a rough gig to say the least. In any case it's not easy to get a ton of hours with their format. I've also managed to get in with a sort of 'volunteer musician agency' that will be taking me around to different hospitals, but likewise it's difficult to get more than an hour each week, and I won't be in town every week.
There's a dental clinic local to me, and I've pestered the coordinator a bunch and got a grand total of 2 hours, but they don't really appear to need a lot of help, and I'm competing with a ton of other kids for those hours.
My brother-in-law is director of development for a dental clinic, but unfortunately it's 3 hours away. He's going to try to get me volunteer time in the spring since their screenings are on Sundays, but that's still going to be rough doing it all semester.
I'm doing my old chemistry professor a favor and assisting him in lecture, answering questions and helping with in-class assignments. I'm not getting college credit for it and though I could have received a minuscule stipend I told him not to worry about it so I could potentially use it as volunteer hours. It will be about 30 hours for this past semester, but I'm not sure if this is admissible as a volunteer activity. (Would this look totally manufactured if I called it volunteer hours on my application?)
In any case---the best thing would be for me to get some good hours over the holidays. My sister works for a company that helps hospitals with infection control procedures, so she has contacts in almost every hospital in her state. She could have a couple options for me, but most of them are probably going to be in a volunteer gray area---of basically being a normal job or project that's only a 'volunteer activity' because I'm doing it for free.
Question 1) none of her activities are going to be dental related. Is that OK?
Question 2) How do I make the most of that gray area? If it's in the service of a non-profit hospital, does that make it legitimately 'volunteer'? Am I overthinking this?
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