Ms. Wilcox Intensive Reading Classes

Activity Recommendations for Students Interested in Pre-Med

  Several suggestions for extracurricular activities provided by counselors across the country are listed below:

·        Volunteer at a local hospital or a low-income health clinic. Sustained, meaningful volunteer work with patient contact is the best foundation for medical school, in addition to the proper college coursework. Knowledge of Spanish is also something that medical schools value, so anything that strengthens language proficiency is valuable as well. Working with the poor and indigent populations helps tremendously – in fact much more than an expensive Pre-Med Forum or summer program.

·        Shadow a doctor or someone else in the medical field; consider an unpaid internship

·        Apply for a High School Internship Program at Hospital or Surgery Center :  http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/aug/13/internship-immerses-high-school-students-in-surger/

·        Work in a research lab at a local hospital/university.  Looks great on a medical school application.

·        Find a local doctor who is doing some sort of research and volunteer. Most doctors will not be doing 'real' lab research but there are often clinical studies out of the office.  Ask your doctor for recommendations.

·        Volunteer at a local hospital or free clinic.

·        Become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) to gain direct patient experience. Great job during college!

·        Boy Scouts of America has a program, Explorers, one of which is Medical Explorers. The student volunteers at least four hours a week at a hospital and meets monthly with a member of the medical staff who explains what his/her area of medicine involves. If your local hospital doesn't have one, start one through the volunteer office.

·        Volunteer to travel with Doctors Without Borders or some other similar organization that flies to countries in need for weekends or other short-term assignments.

·        Start your own project that somehow benefits the health community. Bring nutrition information to the grammar schools or after school programs by creating a fun project.  Write a column for the school newspaper on health. Write a kids-to-kids column on health for the local newspaper. Do a health survey at your school, etc.

·        Attend a University summer program for pre-med students where students have an opportunity to shadow doctors, watch surgeries, etc.  Brown and Stanford, among other colleges and universities, have an excellent summer program.  Brown also started an online version of their summer program using video conferencing as a less expensive option. 

·        Bottom line. . . . .encourage students to DO SOMETHING!

Shelene Perriard, MBA, MS
Independent Counselor
Fairfield, California

  Resources:

http://www.bestpremed.com/premed.htm#sciGPA

http://www.aamc.org/start.htm

http://www.flahec.org/hlthcareers/

Florida Virtual School

(On-line Courses)

Registration Steps

1.      Visit website at www.flvs.net and proceed to the “Apply for Admissions” area.

2.     Click on “Florida Students” and follow the steps to fill out application.  At the end of the process you will receive username and password.  Write them down!

3.     Go back to the home page and at the top left hand corner log in with your new username and password. 

4.     Once you enter your personal account, go to the blue area on the left hand margin and click “Request New Course”.  Follow the instructions to request your desired course(s).

5.     Once your request is completed, print your “Course Request” application and obtain the appropriate signatures.  Turn it in to your counselor for approval. 

6.     Make sure you check your e-mail everyday for important information that will be needed before the “Welcome Call” from the instructor. 

7.     After registering you have 28 days to decide whether to remain or withdraw from the course.  If you withdraw from the course after the 28 day grace period, you will receive an “F” for the course which becomes part of your official transcript. 

You may view a FLVS video explaining this process at:

http://breeze.flvs.net:9090/p53539111

Guardian Account Set Up

8.     After that guardian account should be created at http://www.flvs.net/students_parents/access_to_student_info.php for guardian approval of courses and monitoring of your students coursework.

Please view the Parent/Guardian Set-up Video at:

http://breeze.flvs.net:9090/p86868178