Does my volunteering have a narrative?

[jrohazn]

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I wanted to emphasize mental health (my family has a history of depression/suicide and I struggle with it as well, however I won’t be mentioning that in my app), and I realized that as I started, I really really like working with kids. I was wondering if my volunteering follows the narrative that I’m trying to focus it towards. I have more EC’s, but doesn’t really pertain to it, so I didn’t list it.

List:

Crisis line (suicide hotline) volunteer: 250 hours

Project eco-vitality: I work alongside garden educators from a company at underprivileged local elementary schools near my university to use the school’s garden to emphasize social emotional learning to help the kids develop better social skills/empathy/etc to tackle some common problems that rise up during middle/high school (this is probably my most memorable experience, and I could probably talk about it passionately) ~~100-120 hours.

Research in clinical psychology: focuses on bullying and how the school climate could affect it (I have 1 poster, and I have the potential to come up with my own project in the future). ~~ 600 hours

These are two activities but I volunteer under the guidance of a professor to go to local middle/high schools to lead an outreach program and I show students cool science experiments and teach them the chemical principles that explain their observations. With the other program, I lead students through research project, helping them them how to come up with a hypothesis and method for testing the hypothesis. I also help them do experiments, help them interpret the results, and how to report their results. I help develop a lab manual that would directly be used for this specific activity. ~~100 hours each.

A future activity that I’ll be doing next quarter that implements a program to prevent/raise awareness for bullying at a specific elementary school. ~~50-60 hours.

Big brothers/big sisters volunteering ~ 100 hours

And lastly, I’m potentially deciding between volunteering at a local psychiatric hospital as a peer counselor to provide support/therapy for people struggling with mental health issues, or to work at a children’s hospital.

I was also wondering if these EC's would be considered to be 'cookie cutter'? Any thoughts from this community would be really helpful!!! Thanks!!

 

[907914]

I wanted to emphasize mental health (my family has a history of depression/suicide and I struggle with it as well, however I won’t be mentioning that in my app), and I realized that as I started, I really really like working with kids. I was wondering if my volunteering follows the narrative that I’m trying to focus it towards. I have more EC’s, but doesn’t really pertain to it, so I didn’t list it.

List:

Crisis line (suicide hotline) volunteer: 250 hours

Project eco-vitality: I work alongside garden educators from a company at underprivileged local elementary schools near my university to use the school’s garden to emphasize social emotional learning to help the kids develop better social skills/empathy/etc to tackle some common problems that rise up during middle/high school (this is probably my most memorable experience, and I could probably talk about it passionately) ~~100-120 hours.

Research in clinical psychology: focuses on bullying and how the school climate could affect it (I have 1 poster, and I have the potential to come up with my own project in the future). ~~ 600 hours

These are two activities but I volunteer under the guidance of a professor to go to local middle/high schools to lead an outreach program and I show students cool science experiments and teach them the chemical principles that explain their observations. With the other program, I lead students through research project, helping them them how to come up with a hypothesis and method for testing the hypothesis. I also help them do experiments, help them interpret the results, and how to report their results. I help develop a lab manual that would directly be used for this specific activity. ~~100 hours each.

A future activity that I’ll be doing next quarter that implements a program to prevent/raise awareness for bullying at a specific elementary school. ~~50-60 hours.

Big brothers/big sisters volunteering ~ 100 hours

And lastly, I’m potentially deciding between volunteering at a local psychiatric hospital as a peer counselor to provide support/therapy for people struggling with mental health issues, or to work at a children’s hospital.

I was also wondering if these EC's would be considered to be 'cookie cutter'? Any thoughts from this community would be really helpful!!! Thanks!!

Honestly, anything that is not publications, graduate school, military, peace corps, having a full time/not service or retail job for several years, or an investment of several hundred hours also involving leadership role is cookie cutter. The issue is not being cookie cutter, it is appearing to do box checking. Honestly, I would say skip out on that potential last activity and continue what you are doing. Longevity >>>> number of hours/number of activities, and adding in more unrelated things will feel like box checking.

You do seem to follow a narrative of wanting to help children, and if that is your career goal than excellent we need more like you, but your application should also be open to interpretation as just being a doctor...any doctor, not just PEDs. Basically, you can hint at it, but never directly state you want to pursue a given specialty.

 

[Rachapkis]

Your ECs are not cookie cutter. It is clear that you are interested in the emotional well being of others. The key is to ensure that your passion for serving others comes across when you present these ECs, and, where possible, that your leadership qualities and deep commitment these activities are evident too. Remember the old adage: show, don’t tell. Recalling a memory from your ECs (e.g., a call that you received on the suicide hotline, how you handled the call, and what you felt as you did so) will be much more effective than listing accomplishments or telling the listener that you are passionate.

Good luck.

 

[LizzyM]

What do you care about? How have you demonstrated this care? What have these experiences taught you about what you care about and informed you so that you are even more effective in helping those you care about? You do seem to have a narrative in response to the prompts I've just listed and it is up to you to tell your story. Having a cohesive narrative does take you up a level from cookie cutter, check box approach. Bravo!