November 2025: Non-Clinical Volunteering

Introduction

If you are planning to apply to medical school, extracurricular activities are crucial to participate in during high school and your bachelor’s degree. To paraphrase Dr. Renee Marinelli, for strong medical school applications, pre-meds will want to complete over 300 hours of non-clinical volunteering experience by the end of their junior year of college (for more specific information about extracurriculars, see this article by Dr. Marinelli).

Non-clinical volunteer examples include:

• Community service projects
• Tutoring and mentoring roles
• Volunteering at food pantries and homeless shelters
• Many, many other unique local opportunities!

Note that these volunteering hours are separate from the shadowing, clinical, leadership, and research experiences that you will also need to apply to medical school.

So, you might be wondering:

• How can I ensure that my volunteering experiences are what medical schools are looking for?
  
  
• And, for those of you who are not necessarily looking to pursue medical school but are interested in healthcare: how can volunteering with diverse groups of people help me serve my future patients?
  

⏭️Proceed with the lessons below to learn more about this information and your monthly HSAFP goal!