PRE-HEALTH ACTIVITIES
About Activities for Pre-Health Students
Participating in experiential learning opportunities such as virtual volunteering and online workshops can be very helpful for students seeking admission to healthcare professional schools. This type of involvement helps to develop personal and professional competencies in preparation for lifelong service to others. For additional information about pre-health or shadowing opportunities, contact Bobbi Knickerbocker at rknicker@advising.ufl.edu
- Premeds: Use the AAMC Anatomy of an Applicant Self Assessment Guide and AACOM’s Qualities of a Successful Medical Student to consider your preparation for medical school and the medical profession.
- Use past secondary application essay prompts as reflection questions.
Advice about prehealth journaling from Princeton Health Professions Advising; Missouri State University
- Class about pandemics from Harvard
- Class aboutcommunity change in public health from Johns Hopkins
- Coursera
- Essentials of global health from Yale
- Ivy League free courses list via freecodecamp.org
- Class “An Examination of coronavirus-COVID-19” from St George’s University
- Georgetown offers free MOOCS including Bioethics, Biomedical Big Data, Globalization, or Genomic Medicine.
- Advice from thewirecutter.com
- CDC Advice on Managing Anxiety and Stress during the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Daily meditation and advice from experts via the folks at Ten Percent Happier: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide
- The EI Institute Articles & Books
- World Health Organization Mental Health Considerations During COVID-19 Outbreak
This document has been created cooperatively by members of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions. It may be distributed to students and others for educational purposes. It should not be reproduced for commercial use.
Once the current situation has stabilized: Contact alum physicians near your home by searching by location in your school’s Alum Directory and on LinkedIn. It will be interesting to talk with them about their experiences as physicians, especially during this time. Shadowing is unlikely to be possible for a while.
- Read books that provide insight about being a doctor, applying to medical school, or learning about other health careers.
- Beyond120& Honors Journeys Traveled Speaker Series
- Book lists:
- Advisor recommendations:
- Being Mortal
- Breaking and Mending
- Diagnosis
- Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States (Seth Holmes, MD/PhD)
- The Emperor of All Maladies
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- My Own Country
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
- Teeth: Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America
- When Breath Becomes Air
- Read Blog posts from current medical students
- Podcasts are a great way to learn and engage.
- Surf through websites for schools in your chosen profession in your home state. Medical school links are available below:
- AAMC Allopathic (MD) Medical Schools
- AACOM Osteopathic (DO) Medical Schools
- Watch this video to learn about osteopathic medicine.
- For other professions, check NAAHP Links of Interest
- Allopathic Medicine (M.D.)
- MSAR (subscription required)
- Dentistry
- Occupational Therapy – ACOTE
- Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) – AACOMAS
- Pharmacy – PHARMCAS
- Physician Assistant
- Physical Therapy
- Veterinary Medicine – AAVMC
- Allopathic Medicine - AMCAS
- Dentistry – AADSAS
- Occupational Therapy – OTCAS
- Optometry – OPTOMCAS
- Osteopathic Medicine - AACOMAS
- Pharmacy – PHARMCAS
- Physician Assistant – CASPA
- Veterinary Medicine – VMCAS
- Allopathic – American Medical Association - AMA
- Dental – American Dental Education Association - ADEA
- Occupational Therapy – American Occupational Therapy Association - AOTA
- Optometry – Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry – ASCO
- Osteopathic Medicine D.O. – American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
- Pharmacy - American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy – AACP
- Physical Therapy – American Physical Therapy Association – APTA
- Physician Assistant – Physician Assistant Education Association – APEA
- Veterinary Medicine – Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges – AAVMC
Why Volunteer? Check this out: https://www.dosomething.org/us/articles/9-places-to-volunteer-online-and-make-a-real-impact
- Digital Smithsonian Museum Volunteers https://transcription.si.edu/
- Online Tutoring with disadvantaged students https://upchieve.org/volunteer
- Human rights volunteers https://decoders.amnesty.org/
- People powered research program https://www.zooniverse.org/
- Crisis Text Line: (requires 30 hours of training) www.crisistextline.org/become-a-volunteer
- Digitizing Cultural Works www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:Volunteering
Focus Locally
- Be an active, helpful member of your home community. Volunteer to cover childcare needs for neighbors or to check in (by phone/from a distance) on the elderly. If you’re part of a religious community, see if there are ways that you can provide support through them. Check with organizations where you have volunteered in the past to see if you can step back into previous roles.
- Use org or volunteermatch.org to seek other local options, but be ready for slow responses.
- Idealist article:Nine ways to help others during the coronavirus pandemic (https://www.idealist.org/en/careers/help-others-coronavirus)
- Gainesville Volunteer
Volunteer Virtually
- Operation Warm has a list of 25 ways to volunteer virtually
- Paper-airplanes.org invites volunteers to provide online tutoring to “bridge gaps in language, higher education, and professional skills training for conflict-affected individuals”
- org’s nine places to volunteer online and make a real impact
