Community Service

Medicine is a service profession. Thus, it should not be surprising that medical schools expect applicants to be internally motivated to a career in a service profession and to have found ways to be of service to others. There are many opportunities available at Duke as well as in your hometown and elsewhere to put yourself in the role of a “helper.” This may include: 1) tutoring disadvantaged youths; 2) volunteering at nursing homes, day care centers, hospitals or camps for the handicapped, in programs to assist migrant workers, and in organizations that deal with issues of social justice. Besides helping people in need, you will be exposed to individuals in different walks of life and such activities can help you to build communication skills, and learn to be comfortable in meeting and dealing with strangers.

A number of our students have sought opportunities to do international service work. These international engagement opportunities can be explored by visiting the DukeEngage web site. The DukeEngage program provides funding for Duke undergraduates who wish to pursue an intensive civic engagement experience anywhere in the world. Through DukeEngage, students apply what they have learned in the classroom to address societal issues within the U.S. or abroad. Through these community service experiences, you will develop a sense of health care problems and concerns at a local, national and/or global level.

Students often ask when to start and how much to do. There are a few simple guidelines.

  • You should make sure you are grounded in your academic work before you get involved in either career exploration or community service work.
  • However, once you have a better handle on the demands of your academic work, if time permits, you may want to begin to add activities that are important to you.
  • If your semesters will not accommodate serious extracurricular commitments, you may want to focus on these efforts during breaks or summers.

When you complete your application and go on medical school interviews during your senior year or later, you can be confident that your goals are based on experience and that when you say you want to help people, those goals will be supported by your actions. One other suggestion — a long term, sincere, and deep commitment to one or two activities is better than a long list of things in which you are only superficially interested or which you “picked up” just prior to the application process.

Here is how you can measure your activities.

  1. Showing up
  2. Showing up for a long time
  3. Leadership
  4. Advocacy
  5. Innovation
  6. Legacy

Source: "Barometer for Participation in Any Extracurricular Activity", Gabriel Garcia, MD, Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Medical School Admissions, Stanford Medical School.

For more detailed information on the abundance of service opportunities available to Duke students, contact the Community Service Center (684-4377) located in Crowell Building on East Campus. You should be genuinely motivated to be involved in a service effort and you should be able to articulate what the experience means to you.

However, please keep in mind that any extracurricular activities in which you engage must be balanced with your academic responsibilities. Don’t over extend yourself, particularly in your freshman year. Give yourself time to adjust to the demands of college.

No amount of service work will overcome a seriously weak academic record.