Has anyone else done ESL volunteering?

[814965]

---

Members do not see this ad.

.

 

[kraskadva]

I've been volunteering as an ESL tutor to build up my community service hours and I'm just curious if it's come up a lot in interviews, been looked highly upon, etc. for anyone else who's done it.

I've been doing ESL volunteering.
It didn't come up in interviews (though my interviews were MMI, so ), but I did get accepted to both places I interviewed at.
It certainly wouldn't reflect badly in any way, and I imagine would be seen as a positive whether or not it comes up in interviews.

 

[alana615]

I didn't tutor ESL, but I did do a ton of international/cross-cultural volunteer work before being accepted to med school. I wrote about it in my personal statement as well, so it came up in all of my interviews. I was able to pull a ton of stories/examples from those experiences which was invaluable in demonstrating my ability to problem solve, communicate across cultures, work with others who are different than myself, etc. Most schools concentrate on diversity of some kind, so that definitely plays to your advantage. Make sure you connect your tutoring experience with your ability to work with diverse populations. It'll look good and if it is a prominent part of your application they will likely ask you about it.

Some interviews are really short, so it just depends on what there's time for and what else interesting you have going on in your application. Good luck!

 

[kraskadva]

You probably wouldn't have gotten interviews if they didn't like it!

Probably not 🙂

I didn't tutor ESL, but I did do a ton of international/cross-cultural volunteer work before being accepted to med school. I wrote about it in my personal statement as well, so it came up in all of my interviews. I was able to pull a ton of stories/examples from those experiences which was invaluable in demonstrating my ability to problem solve, communicate across cultures, work with others who are different than myself, etc. Most schools concentrate on diversity of some kind, so that definitely plays to your advantage. Make sure you connect your tutoring experience with your ability to work with diverse populations. It'll look good and if it is a prominent part of your application they will likely ask you about it.

Some interviews are really short, so it just depends on what there's time for and what else interesting you have going on in your application. Good luck!

Also +1 to this.
My personal statement and diversity essay for secondaries had a lot about my cross-cultural experiences (of which tutoring was a small part) and I think that tutoring was likely seen as a logical extension and reinforcement of my stated interest in diversity and working with people from a variety of backgrounds..

 

[iwillbeadoctor!94]

Tutoring in ESL with City Year currently. VERY useful in interviews! I am also bilingual if that helps.