"service activity"

[Camacho Mt. Dew]

I was just browsing through last years secondary prompts and I noticed a question that asked to "describe a volunteer or service activity". Do you think that a paid position would not be appropriate for this type of question? I only ask because my main volunteer experience I already touched on in my personal statement and would prefer to talk about something different on a secondary.

Thank you!

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[Monkitty]

If you only "touched" it, maybe you can expand upon it in the secondary?

To me, "volunteer" would denote non-paid, but "service activity" could be (to me) a paid position as long as it's (community) service orientated.

E.g. I work as part of a before & after school enrichment program. It's paid, but I would classify it as a service activity.

I think adcoms realize not everyone can volunteer their time unpaid. Bills gotta get paid and the like.

 

[Camacho Mt. Dew]

If you only "touched" it, maybe you can expand upon it in the secondary?

To me, "volunteer" would denote non-paid, but "service activity" could be (to me) a paid position as long as it's (community) service orientated.

E.g. I work as part of a before & after school enrichment program. It's paid, but I would classify it as a service activity.

I think adcoms realize not everyone can volunteer their time unpaid. Bills gotta get paid and the like.

I based my personal statement on it actually. Talking about how it was this experience that initially set me on track for medicine. I tried to rewrite it and expand on it (why not while we wait for the actual secondary), but it seems too much like the same thing.

I would like to talk about my current job as a medical assistant in my rural hometown as I only have it listed as an activity on AACOMAS, but it is a paid position. Maybe I'll just wait to see if I even get the invite and then contact admissions and see what they say.

 

[RoadNurse33]

I know what you're talking about as I had the same problem last year with this secondary specifically.

I described how specific people in the organization influenced me, and also how the overall culture of the organization (its values) influenced me.