'volunteering experience at the dental office' - Stanford - INTELLECTUAL VITALITY

Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.

Amongst the many inspirations that I have, one of them has always been to assist others in need. I have always seen people around me who are less fortunate and I feel that it is my duty and responsibility to aid those who need it. I was interested in this field at a young age, when I was about 8. I noticed that the dentist who I used to go to was very friendly and he was always willing to take care of his patients and I became interested. I want to major in biology because it will help me fully understand human anatomy, and it will help me to become a better orthodontist if I know how the human body functions.

I began to volunteer at the local dentist office just to get hands-on experience of how it would feel like to work in a dentist's office. I understood what was essential in order to be able to help patients as a daily part of life, and it was truly an enlightening experience. I found out that I wanted to take care of people even more and that by following such a career would enable me to do so. The professional environment gave me a glimpse of what was expected in a professional workplace. During my involvement, I worked on learning to be safe by wearing appropriate clothing, maintaining a presentable environment, teaching patients how to floss, and assisting anyone who needed assistance. I gained valuable experience working alongside dentists, and I found a passion for helping others and a possible career choice.

I may have been lost when I entered high school, but after the first year, I had established myself and accepted high school as a source of help and preparation. I became more independent by working and performing tasks on my own time. Given the opportunity to follow path in medical field and the volunteering experience at the dental office has taught me to push myself even if the situation seemed difficult. Alongside this new motivation, I developed a passion for science and for assisting others, and it is this passion that inspires me to learn more.

I'm not sure whether this is a good essay or not and ANY help would be greatly appreciated!

I think you can take the "presentable environment" out then because it's not very clear and you already mentioned the appropriate clothing in the previous sentence while "acting properly" is kind of a given. I think you could just say "and assisting anyone who needed it," which would remove the awkwardness in using the "assisting" and "assistance" in the same phrase. Good luck.

Could I instead say I have been interested in medicine?

Of course! Say whatever you actually mean there. I just thought you meant biology because of the sentence that followed that one.