Community Service Experience

If you apply to medical school and write in your personal essay about your desire to help others through your role as a physician, but your background and activities actually show no experience working with people, you will not seem credible to an admissions committee. Admissions committees prefer applicants who have demonstrated abilities at working with people in a social service or medical-related setting. Experience working with people under a variety of conditions is crucial to knowing if a career in medicine is really for you.

As a physician you will work with a wide variety of people, many of them facing disease, injury, terminal illness or the death of loved ones, substance abuse, domestic violence, and many other stressful situations. In short, your job will be to provide care for people at possibly the worst moments of their lives. Experience working with people disadvantaged due to illness, poverty, or other circumstances is especially valuable in helping you prepare for the demands of working as a physician. Volunteering in a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, or an agency that serves disadvantaged youth can provide uniquely rewarding opportunities to build the interpersonal skills you will need as a physician.

Admissions committees prefer a few meaningful experiences over a long period of time rather than a more extensive list of scattered, superficial activities, like participating in an occasional fundraiser. The purpose of community service experiences is not just to get you into medical school, but to give you a chance to see if you really do like working with people and to help you build the interpersonal skills you will need as a physician. Direct person-to-person community service can provide invaluable experience to help you prepare for a medical career.

Indiana University offers a variety of service-learning courses that can help you connect with organizations in our area that need volunteers. Through service-learning students perform community service as part of their college coursework. Taking a service-learning course is a great way to get involved. Service-learning courses get you connected with the community, and since you volunteer within the framework of a college course, it can be less intimidating for students who are new to Bloomington. For more information on service-learning courses please consult the website of the Office of Community Outreach and Partnerships in Service-Learning.

The City of Bloomington Volunteer Network website provides a comprehensive list of volunteer opportunities in our community, and is updated every week.

For more community service opportunities consult the HPPLC Volunteer Opportunities page.