Special needs volunteering?

[xnfs93hy]

Hey. I am currently a weekend volunteer (Fri, sat, sun) at a medical center. I work in the research lab and a regular lab. I do hematology among other things. I am looking to do more.

However, I also want to get involved with special needs/handicap children/teens, through volunteer work. I am not sure how to go about doing this. Would this help me at all? It is something I have wanted to do for a while, so, any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm in New Jersey if that helps.

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[tennisball80]

I work with spacial needs kids at my school sometimes. The thing is, their smiles is the most powerful thing that encourages me every time. I am deeply impressed by their positive life attitude. 🙂

 

[broken tibula]

Absolutely--I believe that people with Down's Syndome are some of the happiest people on earth.

 

[bailey42]

I work with spacial needs kids at my school sometimes. The thing is, their smiles is the most powerful thing that encourages me every time. I am deeply impressed by their positive life attitude.

Same here. I am part of a group that buddies up with mentally disabled kids at my school, and it has been a wonderful experience. I have actually developed very close friendships with many of the "special needs" kids, and they always manage to put a smile on my face. 🙂. Their attitude is literally infectious and everyone walks out happier than they had been walking in.

So, Jeff, I highly recommend getting involved with mentally disabled children.

I have a question for you, too. You said you work in a research lab...how did you get this position? I'm just wondering because I am very interested in getting involved with research.

 

[202781]

Umm...sorry to intrude on High school musical over here. But as someone who was just accepted I thought I would give some advice.

I worked with developmentally disabled children for about a year as an undergrad in college. I believe that this is the reason I have been accepted to 5 schools already (only 1/2 way through with the application cycle). This is the thing that I talked about most with my interviewers, it made me sound mature when I told them how difficult it was gaining the trust of the child and how frustrating it was working with them at times. The way I see it, most people get the same things out of clinical volunteering and shadowing and the people at medical schools realize this. While you need it, I would look at it as more of a check mark on 90% of ppls. applications (unless you work as an EMT, nurse... and actually are doing important things).

Good luck in like 4+ years when you apply. BTW any of you know if HSM4 is in the works?

 

[bailey42]

I worked with developmentally disabled children for about a year as an undergrad in college. I believe that this is the reason I have been accepted to 5 schools already (only 1/2 way through with the application cycle). This is the thing that I talked about most with my interviewers, it made me sound mature when I told them how difficult it was gaining the trust of the child and how frustrating it was working with them at times. The way I see it, most people get the same things out of clinical volunteering and shadowing and the people at medical schools realize this. While you need it, I would look at it as more of a check mark on 90% of ppls. applications (unless you work as an EMT, nurse... and actually are doing important things).

Coming from a high school sophomore with very little experience in the whole application process, please take my opinion for what it is. With that said, if you are implying that people should spend time with developmentally disabled children solely for the purpose of getting a "check mark" on their application, I have to say that I completely disagree with you. I truly believe that it is a kind thing to do, as most of these kids have very few friends outside of the few other mentally disabled students who they have their classes with. While people might get more medical experience out of clinical volunteering and shadowing, spending time with disabled children will give you a very different experience. It surprises me that medical schools think that you get the same experience working with disabled kids as you do volunteering clinically.

I don't mean this in any offense...I just feel very strongly about the importance of spending time getting to know mentally disabled kids. They are some of the sweetest people I have ever met.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Same here. I am part of a group that buddies up with mentally disabled kids at my school, and it has been a wonderful experience. I have actually developed very close friendships with many of the "special needs" kids, and they always manage to put a smile on my face. 🙂. Their attitude is literally infectious and everyone walks out happier than they had been walking in.

So, Jeff, I highly recommend getting involved with mentally disabled children.

I have a question for you, too. You said you work in a research lab...how did you get this position? I'm just wondering because I am very interested in getting involved with research.

I wouldn't call it a research position per se. I mean, it IS a research facility , but, the stuff I do there isn't really research. Like the most I got last year was my name mentioned in a publication (or whatever, my name was on some sheet). It is nice to put on a college app. All I really do is observe how research goes on in a medical center.

I enter tons of data. Move files. Make copies. Run to the hospital and back to the facility. It's nice, but, again, I'm not really actually DOING the research. Good luck trying to find some group that will actually LET YOU help AT ALL in the research.

Do it in college, no one is going to trust you if you are under 18. Even finding surgeons to shadow is a pain. It can be done, but, it isn't really worth it in high school and you would probably have to bend over backwards BIGTIME to get literally ANY REAL POSITION on a research team, and if you did, you would end up doing the crap work.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Coming from a high school sophomore with very little experience in the whole application process, please take my opinion for what it is. With that said, if you are implying that people should spend time with developmentally disabled children solely for the purpose of getting a "check mark" on their application, I have to say that I completely disagree with you. I truly believe that it is a kind thing to do, as most of these kids have very few friends outside of the few other mentally disabled students who they have their classes with. While people might get more medical experience out of clinical volunteering and shadowing, spending time with disabled children will give you a very different experience. It surprises me that medical schools think that you get the same experience working with disabled kids as you do volunteering clinically.

I don't mean this in any offense...I just feel very strongly about the importance of spending time getting to know mentally disabled kids. They are some of the sweetest people I have ever met.

To answer your question though, I have heard of summer intern/externships where they let you participate in some form of research in high school. Google search it, see what comes up.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Umm...sorry to intrude on High school musical over here. But as someone who was just accepted I thought I would give some advice.

I worked with developmentally disabled children for about a year as an undergrad in college. I believe that this is the reason I have been accepted to 5 schools already (only 1/2 way through with the application cycle). This is the thing that I talked about most with my interviewers, it made me sound mature when I told them how difficult it was gaining the trust of the child and how frustrating it was working with them at times. The way I see it, most people get the same things out of clinical volunteering and shadowing and the people at medical schools realize this. While you need it, I would look at it as more of a check mark on 90% of ppls. applications (unless you work as an EMT, nurse... and actually are doing important things).

Good luck in like 4+ years when you apply. BTW any of you know if HSM4 is in the works?

Alright, thanks. HSM sucks btw.

 

[tennisball80]

Same here. I am part of a group that buddies up with mentally disabled kids at my school, and it has been a wonderful experience. I have actually developed very close friendships with many of the "special needs" kids, and they always manage to put a smile on my face. 🙂. Their attitude is literally infectious and everyone walks out happier than they had been walking in.

So, Jeff, I highly recommend getting involved with mentally disabled children.

Power of Smiling 👍👍👍