Personal statment vs. Meaningful Activity structure question

[Anathema]

So I've been editing my essay over several revisions people have been giving me and I've been open to just about everything. I just got back an edit from a person close to me to whom I also showed my most meaningful activities. She said she was impressed by one of the activities and said I should mention it within the PS.

The activity is unique and has some skills related to medicine (leadership, working in team, time management) but by itself it's completely unrelated to the field. I do understand where she's coming from when she says it would make me seem like a more interesting applicant that adcomms may want want to take the time to learn more about, but I'm afraid because of:
1) The activity is repeated in the most meaningful (I could try spinning one in a different way)
2) It's not directly related to medicine and doesn't contribute to the "Why medicine?" but rather the "Why me?" part

To be fair, I put another activity within my PS that wasn't medically oriented (tutoring) but I talked about it as a way for me to be a mentor towards others and the past five editors didn't see a problem with it.

1) Opening describing one medical incident with family member
2) describe how most of my family members have had a serious medical issue and the role of doctors
3) talk about my tutoring as a form of mentorship
4) volunteering with elderly
5) closing paragraph

I guess I don't really know where I would put this activity if I were to.

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[dsoz]

With my app last cycle, I spoke on different topics for each area. I did try to tie them together with a theme. Taken together they can be more powerful than the sum of the parts. I expanded on the theme for secondary essays at some schools.

I had good reception to the strategy.

To answer your question, keep it in your most meaningful section. Don't repeat it.

dsoz

 

[Anathema]

I guess another worry is that everyone seems to talk about all clinical activities in their PS. Is it frowned upon if you can answer the why medicine question with non-clinical activities combined with clinical?

E.g. (this is not me) restaurant worker working in a team relates it to the importance of teams in medicine and why he would want to utilize his skills there?

Vs. Same story except a guy worked at a hospital where he teamed up with someone to do some different task there

 

[Barcu]

You can definitely put in non-medical activities in your PS if you can tie it to your reasons for applying to med school and I suggest you do. dsoz has a good suggestion with having a theme throughout your essay and tying all of your activities back into it, whether medical or not.

I applied before this whole "meaningful activity" stuff, so I don't really know a ton about how to approach it. However, I do find it odd that one of your most meaningful activities would not make it into your PS, even if it is non-medical. If it is so meaningful, it has to contribute to your future career direction somehow.

You do want to avoid being too repetitive between your PS, activities, and secondaries, so work on addressing the same activities from slightly different angles.

 

[DoktorO]

Putting personally enriching activities into the application is exactly why the Work/Activities section exists. You do not have to tie everything back into medicine. Sure you should talk about your clinical experience, but also do not forget to make yourself seem like an interesting person to interview or meet. Talk about your hiking club or sports club. Talk about your hobby of building model cars or snowboarding. The AD com wants people, not robots who only have great scores and a great clinical resume.