How should this activity be classified?

[Bored_Conscious]

I was a coach/volunteer with Special Olympics for around a year now and due to covid-19 I wasn't able to do what I typically do (Coach athletes in powerlifting). So, I wanted to help this organization out and decided to join as a Communications Intern as they develop their online presence.

So, currently as an Intern, I am in charge of the Statewide Facebook page. My weekly duties are mostly comprised of creating a weekly posting schedule for my committee which they use for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook (which I run). In addition to that, I occasionally write press releases and have supervised new incoming interns although this was only for a very short period of time. I plan on continuing this experience as it is pretty enjoyable to learn more about the business side of a non-profit organization that I truly support.

Not exactly sure how to classify this for my application however. I do think it is considered non-clinical volunteering since I am not being paid but it doesn't seem like a typical volunteering role. I was maybe thinking of classifying it as leadership? However, I am still on the edge as to whether or not it even counts as leadership. I do run the Statewide Facebook page and create a weekly plan which my team comes to me if there is any issues. Just doesn't feel like I am LEADING in particular. Does this activity seem like volunteering/leadership and if not, what else could I classify this as?

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[Blueprint Med School]

As I was reading it, I was thinking that it could be classified as leadership or non-clinical volunteering. Put it down as either- the classification won't change much.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[Grapesurgery]

If you can make it sound like leadership, list it as leadership. It's more impressive.

 

[LizzyM]

Volunteer non-clinical. You coached and then you pivoted during COVID to handling the group's social media accounts. I would not call it leadership... too much of a stretch but showing that you have social media smarts is a real plus and something out of the ordinary.

 

[Bored_Conscious]

Volunteer non-clinical. You coached and then you pivoted during COVID to handling the group's social media accounts. I would not call it leadership... too much of a stretch but showing that you have social media smarts is a real plus and something out of the ordinary.

Could you elaborate on how it would be a stretch to call it leadership? Not questioning your judgement, but I assumed that it could be categorized as leadership because of the fact that I am organizing the weekly schedule for my team to post on the variety of social medias that they handle.

Also, I never really thought about it as having social media smarts and how that could be a plus. Never really crossed my mind. I'll have to think about that one.

 

[Bored_Conscious]

If you can make it sound like leadership, list it as leadership. It's more impressive.

Yes, ideally I would like to list it as a leadership because I do feel that it is the main part of my application that is a bit lacking. I am VP of club organization but...everyone has a club leadership position nowadays don't they?

Would coaching be considered leadership? That is what I did prior to pivoting to being an intern. I always have a hard time determining what is truly "leadership". Some people say being a TA is leadership, but I can't see how it is...

 

[LizzyM]

A leader guides peers in to acheive a mutually agreed upon goal. I think that being a TA is better listed under "teaeching/tutoring". Being a resident assistant could be leadership.

If you think that making a schedule and giving it to your peers to carry out is leadership then have at it.

 

[Grapesurgery]

Yes, ideally I would like to list it as a leadership because I do feel that it is the main part of my application that is a bit lacking. I am VP of club organization but...everyone has a club leadership position nowadays don't they?

Would coaching be considered leadership? That is what I did prior to pivoting to being an intern. I always have a hard time determining what is truly "leadership". Some people say being a TA is leadership, but I can't see how it is...

Leadership is, well... guiding others on what to do, typically when you have more knowledge on the task. How much of your role was supervising the new interns? Did people respond to you when you were coaching? Or in you running the Facebook, etc.? If you can give at least 2 convincing anecdotes relating to leadership in this activity I think you’re in a fair place to put it down. Personally I don’t think it’s a stretch, it may not have been the entirety of this activity but there was some leadership there. Many activities overlap in AMCAS categories. It’s to your advantage to pick the categories it falls in that you have a deficit in.
I simply don’t think an adcom will nitpick every aspect of your activity either. Interview time is so limited, they may ask you one question about the activity and move on. Don’t think too hard about it. I’m not suggesting you ever lie, obviously, but if it meets the minimum standard of having some leadership aspect you should be alright.

 

[Bored_Conscious]

Leadership is, well... guiding others on what to do, typically when you have more knowledge on the task. How much of your role was supervising the new interns? Did people respond to you when you were coaching? Or in you running the Facebook, etc.? If you can give at least 2 convincing anecdotes relating to leadership in this activity I think you’re in a fair place to put it down. Personally I don’t think it’s a stretch, it may not have been the entirety of this activity but there was some leadership there. Many activities overlap in AMCAS categories. It’s to your advantage to pick the categories it falls in that you have a deficit in.
I simply don’t think an adcom will nitpick every aspect of your activity either. Interview time is so limited, they may ask you one question about the activity and move on. Don’t think too hard about it. I’m not suggesting you ever lie, obviously, but if it meets the minimum standard of having some leadership aspect you should be alright.

For sure, I don't want to lie about my experience or over-stretch the truth as that would probably be very clear.

My experience with supervising new interns has been fairly limited. However, we have a new intern that came in recently and they had a few questions regarding where to find certain content and how to go about choosing which content is best appropriate. I had a few back and forth with them in regards to the questions they had.

Another potential anecdote I can think of was when we had a big event coming up and one of my committee members were unable to upload a video to Twitter. I gave several solutions, but we were unable to get the issue resolved. So, I let them know to just go ahead and post without the video and just link the post to the Statewide Facebook page where I was able to get the content up.

There are definitely several more situations that are similar to this that I can think of. In addition, I let my committee director know that I have a strong interest in training incoming interns and he seems pretty keen on it as well. So, hopefully I will have more on my plate to talk about next semester.

 

[Catalystik]

Would coaching be considered leadership?

Coaching is another form of Teaching.

 

[Bored_Conscious]

Coaching is another form of Teaching.

Good to know. Thank you