moozikgurl95
Dec 27, 2012
Undergraduate / Make a difference/ Kids/ Hospital; Stanford Supp: What matters/why?/ Volunteering [4]
What matters to you, and why?
I didn't need the extra volunteer hours - Stuyvesant didn't require them; I had a collective 250 hours of volunteering over the previous two summers; I could have found a paying job, and I most definitely could have caught up on sleep. What mattered to me was achieving self-fulfillment by making a difference. I would be lying if I said that I never reconsidered volunteering at NY Presbyterian Hospital five days a week for over a month of the summer. There were moments during my hour and half long rides to the hospital when I felt as if I could be doing something far more productive and even beneficial to myself. The smiles I managed to bring to the patients' faces made up for all of that.
I never had any problems with being sociable, so working with kids throughout the summer felt like a no-brainer. I could've done the summer camp counselor route again, but as an aspiring doctor, the opportunity to shadow doctors while being a child life assistant in the Pediatrics Emergency Department was more exciting. Some days we would get patients close to my own age, those either attempted suicide or were stranded by friends after having alcohol poisoning. Those patients would rarely want to converse with a professional and seemed to feel more comfortable in my or the other volunteers' presence. There were the two unbelievably adorable girls who had been hit by a taxi while crossing the street for a summer camp trip. I ended up spending two hours with them playing Monopoly and Life. When the time came for their x-ray scans, they begged the doctors to let me come with them.
Volunteering at a hospital may not look nearly as impressive as working on an Intel project or interning at a law firm, but that doesn't matter to me. I was satisfied with my summer because I had helped with something bigger than myself. I had contributed to vastly improving the experiences of the children and young adults.
Thanks for editing! :)
What matters to you, and why?
I didn't need the extra volunteer hours - Stuyvesant didn't require them; I had a collective 250 hours of volunteering over the previous two summers; I could have found a paying job, and I most definitely could have caught up on sleep. What mattered to me was achieving self-fulfillment by making a difference. I would be lying if I said that I never reconsidered volunteering at NY Presbyterian Hospital five days a week for over a month of the summer. There were moments during my hour and half long rides to the hospital when I felt as if I could be doing something far more productive and even beneficial to myself. The smiles I managed to bring to the patients' faces made up for all of that.
I never had any problems with being sociable, so working with kids throughout the summer felt like a no-brainer. I could've done the summer camp counselor route again, but as an aspiring doctor, the opportunity to shadow doctors while being a child life assistant in the Pediatrics Emergency Department was more exciting. Some days we would get patients close to my own age, those either attempted suicide or were stranded by friends after having alcohol poisoning. Those patients would rarely want to converse with a professional and seemed to feel more comfortable in my or the other volunteers' presence. There were the two unbelievably adorable girls who had been hit by a taxi while crossing the street for a summer camp trip. I ended up spending two hours with them playing Monopoly and Life. When the time came for their x-ray scans, they begged the doctors to let me come with them.
Volunteering at a hospital may not look nearly as impressive as working on an Intel project or interning at a law firm, but that doesn't matter to me. I was satisfied with my summer because I had helped with something bigger than myself. I had contributed to vastly improving the experiences of the children and young adults.
Thanks for editing! :)