non-trad after-hours ECs!

[anon1234]

hi everyone

 

so i am in grad school and need to be in the lab all day - which gives me no time to do any ECs during the day. i wanted to volunteer at some food bank, blood clinic, etc etc but it seems absolutely all positions available are during the day!

 

so my question is: what did you grad students/people with full time jobs/parents etc. do in terms of volunteering in the evenings/on weekends? is there anything available?

 

thank you!

[future_doc]

What about a patient recreational therapy program at a hospital?

 

Hep[ing with the elderly in a elderly home, with the blind in care or at home, working with young diasabled, Big Brother - Big Sister. Soup kitchen will be serving supper after work hours. Visiting patients with no family or family far away, I would imagine the patients would happy to see you any time.

[azzurrifan87]

I volunteer with a non-profit organization that teaches youth leadership skills. Since all the volunteers and executives are students for the most part we meet on evenings and weekends.

[Satsuma]

As a grad student I had volunteered tutoring kids with learning disabilities - flexible scheduling.

 

As a grad student and working person I volunteered at a therapeutic riding centre - so much fun, wish I had time to do it still! (obviously more fun for a horse person than a non-horse person probably)

[future_doc]

As a grad student and working person I volunteered at a therapeutic riding centre - so much fun, wish I had time to do it still! (obviously more fun for a horse person than a non-horse person probably)

 

 

What an amazing opportunity for the kids and for you. Due to bad scheduling I missed out on such an opportunity for kids with motor dysfunctions. I will still try to get to do it in the future, schedule permitting.

[Dee88]

I few summers ago I volunteered in the ER from 9 pm-12 am every Thursday. Some hospital volunteer programs have night shifts, so maybe try asking if they offer them?

[matthewward_prep101]

Hi Anon1234 – it’s a really good question what to do during graduate school to boost your NAQ/EC’s. One experience that I started with in grad school (and have now been doing for over 6 years) is teaching. I started as a lab TA (9X’s) and Kaplan MCAT instructor, and then went to work for Prep101 (an amazing company). In total now, I’ve taught over 1500 undergrads and have well over 600 hours of actual “lecturing” experience (you can imagine how much extra prep-time goes into it though). I will say - teaching is an awesome experience and excellent way to boost your public speaking skills and self-confidence. Indeed, you will probably find that your Master’s defense will go “swimmingly” if you approach it just like another class, and your committee/external are simply another type of inquisitive student

 

I would also encourage you (as well as others) to think seriously about working for one or two years after your Master’s in the actual health-care field. By no means am I suggesting volunteering in a soup kitchen, working with children, or recreational therapy isn’t important – the problem is that you KNOW how competitive pre-meds are, and unfortunately, this is all pretty status quo for those working towards gaining admissions into medical school.

 

One such experience that I sincerely enjoyed was working in mental health and addictions for two+ years in both tertiary care and assertive community treatment. Gaining case-management experience is really invaluable – you will have your own patients that will require medication monitoring/administration, crisis prevention, psychosocial rehabilitation, vocational training, housing, withdrawal management, care-service planning, respite, team approach design, (and the list goes on) …. lots of things to talk about on an application/interview. And before you say there is no way you could enter such a field, I would note that I did this with a Master’s degree in genetics/molecular biology! Simply do some research: find the “big” health authority in your area, apply to public/casual postings, find the unit manager responsible for the area you are interested in (i.e., tertiary care, assertive community treatment, community care, psych emergency, psych intensive care, etc….) and convince them that if you can obtain a thesis-based masters, you could certainly learn and work in this field as well. The entire country is desperate right now for good/hard workers in MHAS – and although it is pretty intense (you’ll likely burn out after ~2 years), it is a very life-changing/eye opening experience. Indeed, until I worked in this field, I can honestly say I had no idea how bad our current system is for helping the truly marginalized individuals of our society….

 

Anyway, I hope some of this helps – I’m not trying to “show off,” just suggesting that you may want to try to find some activities that most other pre-meds haven’t/wouldn’t do. Clearly, there is no cookie-cutter way into medical school: do what you love and don’t get ridiculously caught up in the academic side of admissions.

 

However: in answer to your original question – you do need to find something significant to take part in outside of research during your masters – be prepared for 60-70 hour work weeks

 

Feel free to e-mail/call me if you have any questions or want to discuss ways of overcoming the barriers of entry into the health care field (if you are not a nurse or have special certification).

[kylamonkey]

St John Ambulance usually has evening meetings and weekend duties. If you're not worried about the geekiness, you could try it.

[mr.o]

I just started out with St. John's ambulance and so far it is great! Weekly meetings in the evening at 7pm and volunteer shifts at events which are usually on weekends/after the work day.

 

Also, in my area (Waterloo) there is a great group called Community Outreach Connections which has a friendly visitor program where you can visit a senior or individual, many of whom live alone and may have an unfortunate disease. The visits can really help brighten their days!

 

Hope this helps

[mymeddream]

@ Matt - I am also very interested in doing something along the lines of case management and working with marginalized individuals but don't know how to get started. I looked around in my own community but there are no such institutions etc that do this kind of work. Any guidance as to where I should begin my search on this would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

 

One such experience that I sincerely enjoyed was working in mental health and addictions for two+ years in both tertiary care and assertive community treatment. Gaining case-management experience is really invaluable – you will have your own patients that will require medication monitoring/administration, crisis prevention, psychosocial rehabilitation, vocational training, housing, withdrawal management, care-service planning, respite, team approach design, (and the list goes on) …. lots of things to talk about on an application/interview. And before you say there is no way you could enter such a field, I would note that I did this with a Master’s degree in genetics/molecular biology! Simply do some research: find the “big” health authority in your area, apply to public/casual postings, find the unit manager responsible for the area you are interested in (i.e., tertiary care, assertive community treatment, community care, psych emergency, psych intensive care, etc….) and convince them that if you can obtain a thesis-based masters, you could certainly learn and work in this field as well. The entire country is desperate right now for good/hard workers in MHAS – and although it is pretty intense (you’ll likely burn out after ~2 years), it is a very life-changing/eye opening experience. Indeed, until I worked in this field, I can honestly say I had no idea how bad our current system is for helping the truly marginalized individuals of our society….