Does this count as volunteering?

[Dr Gerrard]

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I am a leader in a club whose purpose is to go out into the forest and clean up, pick up trash, put up signs, make the trails better, etc. We often hold activities in the forest to increase awareness of this and get more people out to help us. We wrote a proposal for student government to get more money to put into the forest. This is my university's forest though.

The reason I ask is that I am volunteering my time to go and clean up, etc. However, I guess I am not directly serving other people.

 

[AdmiralChz]

That's definitely volunteering, unless you are getting paid for it. Do you mean to ask if its clinical or non-clinical? Sounds non-clinical to me.

 

[cglim89]

I have a similar question - does shadowing = volunteering? Also do most pre-med students do formal shadowing? I didn't go through any programs, so I was wondering what exactly would count...

Thanks
Christine

 

[TheMagicCookie]

I have a similar question - does shadowing = volunteering? Also do most pre-med students do formal shadowing? I didn't go through any programs, so I was wondering what exactly would count...

Thanks
Christine

Shadowing does not qualify as volunteering because you aren't doing anything besides observing the person's typical work day. You don't need to go through any formal program to shadow, just make connections and go from there.

 

[justmoi]

that's definitely volunteering, and non-clinical as mentioned.

as themagiccookie said, shadowing is not volunteering. you have to be actively helping in a hospital in some kind of role to be a volunteer, and in most hospitals its a formal process.

shadowing may/may not be through a formal program. most premeds i know, myself included, set it up themselves through contacts or emailing doctors or some other way. it doesn't matter how you get the shadowing opportunity, as long as someone can vouch that its true. ideally, you'd like to get an LOR of some kind from the doctor/health professional you shadowed: that makes the most impact.