Underserved community volunteering?

[djsbaseball2014]

Hi all,

I recently had a talk with my University's medical school admission staff at a pre-health fair and they were really big on serving the underserved in some way shape or form. this makes sense because the city i am in has a lot of minorities in it and is not the best area. I am curious to know if these extracurriculars would fit that criteria as i am already doing them.

1.) Mini-Med School- we learn about a health topic such as asthma, pre-natal care etc and then go out and educate the community not here topics
2.) Schools on Wheels- I tutor a homeless child or a child who does not have the academic resources available to him once a week
3.) Habitat for Humanity
4.) I was also planning on taking a medical internship trip to Ghana during one of my summers as i have my EMT credentials and will be able to utilize them on this trip. Would this count as an underserved community?

My university accepts 24 students out of 60 spots or so from their undergrad and each year only about 200 students apply. (from my undergrad)

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[BurghMed]

All of those are good, with the possible exception of the ghana trip. If the trip to ghana is for a short period of time (say, 2 weeks or so) I think it's looked as something solely to get hours and is not as meaningful as an experience as students typically think.

 

[whatever5]

Concur with above. Do a good job of discussing them in your essays and you're solid.

 

[clippers50fan]

1-3 are great. Careful about 4, it could be seen as medical vacationism or whatever the term is.

 

[musicalfeet]

Do whatever speaks more to you. Personally I think 1 sounds like a cool experience, especially if you can interact and communicate with those in the community. It sounds like it has a lot of potential for you to learn a lot about the community while keeping things slightly medically related.

 

[djsbaseball2014]

@BurghMed @musicalfeet @clippers50fan @whatever5 thank you for the feedback, if I were to do the medical trip to Ghana, it would be for 6 weeks or so. I will definitely continue with 1-3

 

[clippers50fan]

Do you have to pay for it or is it through a credible program that? It won't hurt you, it may just not help you much and for a lot of money may not be worth it.

 

[djsbaseball2014]

@clippers50fan agreed, I'm still debating on if I want to do it because i do have to pay for it. The thing I'm worried about is having my EMT-basic but not doing anything with it, i feel like that may raise a red flag

 

[cantankerous]

If this mini-med program is anything like Drexel's, don't waste your time.

Serving the underserved is very easy. Look at student orgs as well as contact various groups like churches, youth groups, local activist groups, etc.