Community service is a broad term that refers to any kind of volunteer work that is done in service of others.
There are two kinds of community service:
1) Clinical volunteering
2) Non-clinical volunteering
You should explore both medical and non-medical volunteering opportunities and cultivate meaningful involvements in both areas.
Applicants to pre-medical and pre-dental programs are expected to accumulate somewhere around 300 hours of community service experience (the average for pre-medical applicants in the past year, as recorded by the AAMC, has been around 400+ hours). Admissions committees will typically only consider collegiate and post-collegiate service experiences as counting towards this hour total. High school experiences might be considered as adding value to an application, but only if the applicant continued to engage in that same opportunity following high school graduation.
One important thing to note is that committees want to see a quality of experiences over quantity of experiences. It is necessary to build longitudinal commitments to, on average, one or two clinical volunteering activities and two or three non-clinical volunteering activities. Maintaining longitudinal commitments to your service opportunities showcases your authentic passion and will allow you to have something meaningful to discuss on your future applications.
Keep in mind that connections you make with your supervisors or coordinators in this setting are important to build and keep so that you may later ask for a letter of recommendation for your application.
Finding Opportunities
There are myriad ways to find volunteer opportunities, both on-campus and off-campus. In terms of on campus resources, we suggest exploring the Department of Student Activities, the Clubs + Organizations page on our website, as well as our On-Campus Resources page.
Beyond the UConn community, we encourage you to explore opportunities in the surrounding town(s) and community, or within your hometown. Ask your fellow students and peers what they are involved in and how they found that experience. This is a great way to learn about what others are doing and how you might get involved in the same experience, or something similar.
If you're uncertain what kind of volunteer engagements are right for you, we encourage you to reflect on how some of your hobbies and personal interests can be viewed as or turned into a volunteer or service engagement. Do you volunteer at your old high school as a gymnastics coach? Do you create and produce your own podcast? Do you volunteer at your local library? All of these kinds of endeavors can be used as evidence of giving back to your community in a meaningful way.
If you haven't had the chance to cultivate such interests already, treat your time as a student as your opportunity to do so! Join new clubs you think sound interesting; get engaged through the Office of Community Outreach to try volunteering; apply to internships that allow you to build new skills and passions.
You are free to volunteer in whatever setting feels most interesting and fulfilling to you. This is not only a way to showcase your service orientation, but also a great way to show how you are a well-rounded person and candidate for health professional school.
For example, applicants are welcome to volunteer in health settings, such as at a local hospital, through the Red Cross or similar organization, with a local senior center, or at a Covid-19 testing or vaccination site. Our office has put together a Hospital Volunteering Guide that you can check out ways to engage in service in the healthcare field.
For example, applicants can also volunteer in other ways, perhaps spending time at a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter, tutoring or mentoring elementary, middle or high school students, or working at a refugee or immigrant center.
On-Campus Opportunities
On-campus involvement is one of the easiest ways to find and cultivate care for your community. We recommend that you get engaged early and stay engaged throughout your time as a student—as mentioned above, quality, longitudinal involvements are one of the foundational elements of any competitive application.
There are many ways to get involved on campus, the beauty of going to a large institution! We recommend starting on the Student Activities website; they are the hub for all student-related engagements on campus.
You can find all student clubs and organizations through UConntact;
You can get connected to the Office of Community Outreach;
You can join SUBOG (the Student Union Board of Governors);
And you can explore all student involvement opportunities.
Our office has also created a spreadsheet of the Pre-Health Student Clubs and Organizations on campus that we would encourage you to explore to find the right group for you!
Below is an example chart of multiple on-campus opportunities you can engage in if you have an interest in a particular area. This is meant to be instructive, not prescriptive! The best thing about being a pre-health student is that you are unique and your preparation doesn't look like that of any other applicant.
| Volunteering Interest | Activity/Organization One | Activity/Organization Two | Activity/Organization Three |
| Global health/medicine | Model UN [Student club] |
Global Health Spaces on Campus [Student club] |
MEDLIFE [Student club] |
| Leadership | Leadership Learning Community [Student Activities] |
SUBOG [Student Activities] |
Executive Board Position [any club or organization!] |
| Mental health | Medical Minds Matter [Student club] |
NAMI on Campus [Student club] |
Exercise is Medicine [Student club] |
| Teaching and mentoring | Mansfield Middle School Tutoring program [Community Outreach] |
PUMP (PNB Undergraduate Mentoring Program) [Physiology and Neurobiology Department] |
Q Center Tutor [Quantitative Learning Center] |
| Underserved communities | University of Connecticut Health Leaders (UCHL) [UConn Health] |
Collegiate Health Services Corps (CHSC) [UConn Health] |
Alternative Break trip [Community Outreach] |
| Writing | Long River Review [Create Arts + Literary Journal] |
STEMTalk Magazine [Student-run magazine] |
Daily Campus [Campus newspaper] |
| Working with the elderly | Alzheimer's Association [Student club] |
Generations Connect [Community Outreach] |
Mansfield Senior Center [Community Outreach] |
Off-Campus Opportunities
There are infinite options for volunteering off campus! We encourage you to find something in your community, or a community you care about, and remain dedicated to that activity for a number of years to showcase your service orientation and reliability and dependability.
The possibilities are endless. Consider below some inspiration for getting started.
You can find clinical volunteering opportunities in the Northeast by reading our Hospital Volunteering Guide;
You can find other clinical volunteer opportunities nationally with organizations like Planned Parenthood, Crisis Textline (virtual), and Ronald McDonald House Charities;
You can find non-clinical volunteer with local food banks/soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and ESL tutoring;
You can coach recreational sports in your area, provide technical assistance to elderly persons, and do environmental clean up.
Below is an example chart of multiple on-campus opportunities you can engage in if you have an interest in a particular area. This is meant to be instructive, not prescriptive! The best thing about being a pre-health student is that you are unique and your preparation doesn't look like that of any other applicant.
| Volunteering Interest | Activity/Organization One | Activity/Organization Two | Activity/Organization Three |
| Children with disabilities | Hole in the Wall Gang Camp [multiple locations] |
Connecticut Children's Medical Center [Hartford, CT] |
Horizons CT [South Windham, CT] |
| Immigrant/refugee populations | Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services [New Haven, CT] |
Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants [multiple locations] |
ESL tutoring [various] |
| LGBT/queer populations | Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective [Hartford, CT] |
The Trevor Project [virtual] |
Mid Fairfield AIDS Project [Norwalk, CT] |
| Underserved communities | Habitat for Humanity [multiple locations] |
Community Health Center [various] |
AmeriCorps [multiple locations] |