Should I list this volunteering?

[The Helpful Aye Aye]

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Hey all,

I started volunteering at a food share in mid-October 2013 and finished mid-December, due to traveling and starting a tutoring job. It was an outdoor hippie dippie kind of deal, 3 hours once a week- I didn't even meet they guy in charge (coordinators are all volunteers). Since it was so short, I only did like 21 hours, and I doubt anybody remembers my face should I bother listing it on AMCAS?

 

[justAstudent]

Probably not. Let's see what others think.

 

[Catalystik]

I started volunteering at a food share in mid-October 2013 and finished mid-December, due to traveling and starting a tutoring job. It was an outdoor hippie dippie kind of deal, 3 hours once a week- I didn't even meet they guy in charge (coordinators are all volunteers). Since it was so short, I only did like 21 hours, and I doubt anybody remembers my face should I bother listing it on AMCAS?

Do you have any other short-term volunteering you could group it with, so it has more impact (which means you wouldn't need a contact if the other activity has one)? If not, it's your choice to list it. I've see fewer hours than that for an Experience on the application. And you must know someone who can attest to your involvement.

 

[The Helpful Aye Aye]

Do you have any other short-term volunteering you could group it with, so it has more impact (which means you wouldn't need a contact if the other activity has one)? If not, it's your choice to list it. I've see fewer hours than that for an Experience on the application. And you must know someone who can attest to your involvement.

So I relocated and found the volunteering as soon as I could- all of my collegiate activities as separate from this and my postbacc (meaning that it's standalone). I have aggregate ~200 hours of community involvement from undergrad (not including clinical) so it's a matter of consistency rather than quantity. I have a friend who came along a couple of times, so I'll list him... it probably won't be a big deal and the lack of sign-in sheet/loose organization/constantly changing group of volunteers is a legitimate explanation I think.

 

[masaraksh]

Isn't this essentially just 'fluff'? Like, we all might as well list the times we mowed our neighbors lawn or shoveled their driveway and the times we helped little old ladies in no apparent distress cross the street.

 

[shiftingmirage]

If you don't have any other volunteer activities, then I would list it. If you have more significant volunteering, I would omit it.

 

[The Helpful Aye Aye]

Isn't this essentially just 'fluff'? Like, we all might as well list the times we mowed our neighbors lawn or shoveled their driveway and the times we helped little old ladies in no apparent distress cross the street.

Well the format of the organization is such that they have several factions at different locations operating simultaneously, for 3 hours a week. Providing free food (and coordinating deliveries of donations of said food) to an under-served community consistently for a small window every week isn't fluff. The reason why I wasn't able to keep up with it was because I just moved to the area to start my postbacc and was offered a job tutoring the following semester. Given that I already have a decent amount of volunteering hours, my motivation for trying to include this is to continue the narrative that I'm committed to helping under-served populations (all of my volunteering in college took place in east/central Harlem).

 

[LizzyM]

Well the format of the organization is such that they have several factions at different locations operating simultaneously, for 3 hours a week. Providing free food (and coordinating deliveries of donations of said food) to an under-served community consistently for a small window every week isn't fluff. The reason why I wasn't able to keep up with it was because I just moved to the area to start my postbacc and was offered a job tutoring the following semester. Given that I already have a decent amount of volunteering hours, my motivation for trying to include this is to continue the narrative that I'm committed to helping under-served populations (all of my volunteering in college took place in east/central Harlem).

List it. It shows that you have continued community service after college. Note in the description that you stopped in Dec due to other obligations with tutoring.