5 answers
Taylor
Student
Anaheim, California
1
Question
Asked
1696 views
What volunteer opportunities would match well with STEM related majors?
I am a 10th grader and I have my eyes set on being a biochemistry major. I want to know what places or organizations I can help out! #biochemistry #college-major #biology #volunteer
Login to comment
5 answers
Shivani Kamal
student doctor
21
Answers
Renton, Washington
Updated
Shivani’s Answer
Hi Taylor,
YAY for biochem major, that my undergrad major I graduated it before applying to med school. I agree with the above posts reaching out to local community colleges to see if any labs take volunteers for high school students!
Although when it comes time to apply to college, I recommend volunteering for something that you actually like and can see yourself doing for a long time, instead of a bunch of opportunities with minimal time dedicated to it. For example, I volunteered at the hospital at the front desk for a total of 2 years. I got a great letter of rec and make some awesome relationships.
Your volunteer thingy really does not have to be biochem related. But if you wanted it to be, the best place to start would be school labs who need assistants to help clean and keep the space organized. (please keep in mind that is not indicative of what your actual major will be like)
Hope this helps
Shivani Kamal
YAY for biochem major, that my undergrad major I graduated it before applying to med school. I agree with the above posts reaching out to local community colleges to see if any labs take volunteers for high school students!
Although when it comes time to apply to college, I recommend volunteering for something that you actually like and can see yourself doing for a long time, instead of a bunch of opportunities with minimal time dedicated to it. For example, I volunteered at the hospital at the front desk for a total of 2 years. I got a great letter of rec and make some awesome relationships.
Your volunteer thingy really does not have to be biochem related. But if you wanted it to be, the best place to start would be school labs who need assistants to help clean and keep the space organized. (please keep in mind that is not indicative of what your actual major will be like)
Hope this helps
Shivani Kamal
Katherine Colburn
Civil Engineer
15
Answers
Ogden, Utah
Updated
Katherine’s Answer
Taylor,
Any volunteering you do will help you get to know your community and potentially influence your future career path. Volunteering helps you grow as a person and learn valuable skills like empathy, communication, and patience.
I highly recommend becoming a math or language tutor for younger students in your area. The best way to know for sure that you've mastered a topic is to teach it to someone else.
I encourage you not to limit your volunteer opportunities to any one field. Go and serve the greatest need that is also a fair match for your talents. Your local library is a good place to connect with tutoring and other volunteer organizations, as are community colleges, the YMCA, and churches or other community centers.
Serving others helped me practice and develop skills which are invaluable in engineering and design thinking.
Any volunteering you do will help you get to know your community and potentially influence your future career path. Volunteering helps you grow as a person and learn valuable skills like empathy, communication, and patience.
I highly recommend becoming a math or language tutor for younger students in your area. The best way to know for sure that you've mastered a topic is to teach it to someone else.
I encourage you not to limit your volunteer opportunities to any one field. Go and serve the greatest need that is also a fair match for your talents. Your local library is a good place to connect with tutoring and other volunteer organizations, as are community colleges, the YMCA, and churches or other community centers.
Serving others helped me practice and develop skills which are invaluable in engineering and design thinking.
Gloria Ortiz
Instructional Designer
842
Answers
Irving, Texas
Updated
Gloria’s Answer
Hello,
I think that volunteering in general is actually great for any student getting ready to go to college. The experience of volunteering exposes you to different kinds of people who can teach you unexpected skills. I think that if you want to focus on STEM, I would still ask you - what is it that you want to do in STEM? Do you want to find cures to diseases, use your knowledge to create safety equipment, monitor chemical impacts to the environment? I think the more specific you can be about what you want do will help you figure out what organizations that you might want to volunteer with. It will also help you determine what tasks you might want to do within an organization. I would think that someone who wants to find cures to diseases would need to know a lot about grant writing, so writing skills and volunteering would be good. I would recommend that you start with a volunteer network site. Here is an example of one where I live: https://www.volnow.org/.
Good luck with your search.
I think that volunteering in general is actually great for any student getting ready to go to college. The experience of volunteering exposes you to different kinds of people who can teach you unexpected skills. I think that if you want to focus on STEM, I would still ask you - what is it that you want to do in STEM? Do you want to find cures to diseases, use your knowledge to create safety equipment, monitor chemical impacts to the environment? I think the more specific you can be about what you want do will help you figure out what organizations that you might want to volunteer with. It will also help you determine what tasks you might want to do within an organization. I would think that someone who wants to find cures to diseases would need to know a lot about grant writing, so writing skills and volunteering would be good. I would recommend that you start with a volunteer network site. Here is an example of one where I live: https://www.volnow.org/.
Good luck with your search.
Ritu Puri
Data Engineering
1
Answer
Plano, Texas
Updated
Ritu’s Answer
Great question Taylor. Local universities and sometimes community colleges have programs for high school students. Reach out to the College of sciences in your local universities to see if they have programs like this, or can help you by allowing volunteer work while paring you with an educator there.
Local hospitals also have student volunteer programs where you can help out, reach out to them as well.
Good luck!
Contact College of Sciences in schools in your geographical area.
Reach out to local hospitals to explore student volunteer opportunities
Local hospitals also have student volunteer programs where you can help out, reach out to them as well.
Good luck!
Ritu recommends the following next steps:
Bobby Meyer, MSIS
Cloud Engineer
2
Answers
Dallas, Texas
Updated
Bobby’s Answer
Great question!
One way to accomplish this is through clubs at universities. When I was in undergrad I was a member of the chemistry club that did a lot of local demos and outreach to the community. We had high school aged people who we trained to help us because they loved chemistry.
Some labs or hospitals have volunteer positions where you may not get hands on work (legal reasons) but you can get an insiders view to how processes are done.
I would suggest to look around local universities to you or community colleges or hospitals, those are a great place to start.
The american chemical society has a list of opportunities: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/volunteer.html
One way to accomplish this is through clubs at universities. When I was in undergrad I was a member of the chemistry club that did a lot of local demos and outreach to the community. We had high school aged people who we trained to help us because they loved chemistry.
Some labs or hospitals have volunteer positions where you may not get hands on work (legal reasons) but you can get an insiders view to how processes are done.
I would suggest to look around local universities to you or community colleges or hospitals, those are a great place to start.
The american chemical society has a list of opportunities: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/volunteer.html