UCLA Student Volunteer Program

[Philip]

To those that volunteered in UCLA's 80 hour student program, when does this program start? I emailed Stephanie Robinson like a month ago to enroll. I didn't get a response yet. I also called her every weekday the past 2 weeks. She is never at her office. Does anyone know when this program generally starts and how long does it usually take to get 80 hours?

Thanks.

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[ConfusedOne]

To those that volunteered in UCLA's 80 hour student program, when does this program start? I emailed Stephanie Robinson like a month ago to enroll. I didn't get a response yet. I also called her every weekday the past 2 weeks. She is never at her office. Does anyone know when this program generally starts and how long does it usually take to get 80 hours?

Thanks.

She is on leave until some time in august. Have you really been calling everyday? Wow, why not just pay her a visit. She is very friendly

 

[Fariba]

The best thing to do is contact the Volunteer Office because all volunteers have to go through a 3 hour orientation. And these orientations are given only once every couple of months. You have to enroll in that as soon as possible.

It usually takes about a month to go through the orientation, get your vaccinations, all your forms, etc.... and THEN you interview with Stephanie Robinson so she can direct you to all the different departments.

Just to give you a time frame:
I did my orientation program in October, interviewed w/Stephanie in November, and started my first volunteer job mid-December.

Its a long process but well worth it. You are going to learn a lot and meet a lot of great people. The students are wonderful so dont hesitate to strike up conversations with them. You will get a lot of useful advice!

 

[Philip]

Just to give you a time frame:
I did my orientation program in October, interviewed w/Stephanie in November, and started my first volunteer job mid-December.

Its a long process but well worth it. You are going to learn a lot and meet a lot of great people. The students are wonderful so dont hesitate to strike up conversations with them. You will get a lot of useful advice!

Thanks for the response. I guess I will go visit the volunteer office Monday and see what happens.

But the dental volunteer program is over after you complete the specified tasks and complete 80 hours right?

 

[Fariba]

Thanks for the response. I guess I will go visit the volunteer office Monday and see what happens.

But the dental volunteer program is over after you complete the specified tasks and complete 80 hours right?

Yes there are about 8 or 9 departments you will work in:
1-Chartroom - fast paced and keeps you busy, pretty fun (18hrs)
2-Perio clinic - you help students w/charting (the best part of the whole program) (20hrs)
3-Central Services - you learn a lot about the different instruments and where materials are located, also fast paced and fun (20hrs)
4-Endodontics - I pretty much did nothing and learned nothing. You sit in an office and staple things (4 hrs)
5-Student Lab - get to learn about various dental instruments and hang out with Courtney, really cool guy. I highly recommend walking around the lab and talking to some of the students, I got a lot of great advice from them (10hrs)
6-Billing - I was unlucky because they had nothing for me to do so I pretty much spent my 4 hours there snooping around the dental clinics...do that as much as possible. Both the professors and students are really nice and very eager to talk and share stories. (4hrs)
7-Patient Intake - I have mixed feelings about that department that I will keep to myself. Lets just say it will be as good as you make it (10hrs)

I am sure I am forgetting some departments but that is pretty much it. Stephanie Robinson will direct you on which department to visit first. You have to complete each set of hours in the given department and then you can go back to her and have her tell you your next assignment. When you are all finished with your hours you have an exit interview and get a letter of recommendation from Stephanie.

Its a great program. Sometimes, you will feel like your intelligence is really being tested (delivering mail, stapling papers, counting things)... but you really have to make the best of it. You get to observe a lot, so make sure you talk to any professor, student, advisor, etc that you meet (dont get in their way though). If they make eye contact more than twice, than go ahead and ask them about a procedure or something that they are working on. They will love to explain stuff to you, trust me.

If you have any other questions just PM me. Good luck and have fun.

 

[bruinpredent]

hmmm, thats interesting....i pretty much got started the week after the first volunteer orientation. I'd recommend getting your tb vaccinations now at Ashe, you have to go twice, within a week of one another. Try to go to a volunteer orientation during the same week (you can find the schedule online) and sign up for the 1st "interview" time slot with the lady at the volunteer office (its not stephanie). She'll direct you to stephanie....I talked to stephanie and got everything signed and got started the same day, so yea it was like a week long process (this was in december).


As for the program itself, once you finish your 80 hours, you can opt to stick around and stephanie will let you shadow some of the other departments like endo and maxofacial and what not so you wont be paper pushing but instead actually observing. Haha, its probably the best part of the program to be honest...


hope that helped

 

[Philip]

Thanks for the info. It seems like everyone is starting the program in winter....I was hoping I could start and finish in Summer since I do not go to UCLA. I am a new transfer student at UCI(from UCR), although I also got accepted to UCLA and UCSD.

......everything would be easier and closer if I went to UCLA......but I still have no regrets. Main reason I chose UCI is because it's prolly easier than the other skools so I could maintain a high gpa, and prolly same as UCR except there's a better reputatoin. LOL.....

But I'm still going to try and complete the program.