Volunteering, on-site visits and shadowing

"Try on" various career paths

Real-world experience and exploration can help you identify your interests, values and skills outside of what you learn at VCU. Through shadowing, on-site visits, and volunteering, you can “try on” the various career pathways to see if you are on the right track.

Volunteering

Volunteering is a vital component to understanding more about a professional field of interest. While shadowing involves simply observing, volunteering allows you to actively perform tasks and make contributions to a workplace or organization.

For health care fields especially, experiences that offer direct patient contact are highly regarded by most admissions representatives. Most pre-health admissions representatives want to see that you give freely of your time to support your community as well.

There are numerous places where volunteer positions are posted. Here is a selection of some websites from VCU and VCU Health to aid you in your search.

• Volunteer VCU
• Volunteer Services | VCU Health
• Student Opportunity Center

On-site visits

Have you ever wondered what it is actually like to work for an employer or in a specific industry? Requesting a tour or an on-site visit with an employer is a great place to start. You can also use some of the informational interview questions while you are on-site to help guide the conversation. These visits allow you the opportunity to learn more about how the organization functions and, hopefully, the part-time, experiential, and full-time opportunities available to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Not sure where to start? Check out our list of employers interested in hearing from you.

Shadowing

Shadowing helps you understand more about a professional field of interest. It involves following a professional throughout their day, observing the ins-and-outs of the profession as a whole.

Most graduate and professional programs in health sciences require a minimum number of hours of shadowing experience.

After a day of shadowing, ask yourself:

• What is the most surprising thing you learned or observed today?
• Why did it surprise you?
• How does this experience shape and mature your understanding of the profession?

Resources

• How to write professional emails to build connections and search for shadowing opportunities
• Our list of employers who are interested in hearing from you

Why should I volunteer, set up on-site visits, or job shadow?

Gaining experience during your undergraduate career serves two important purposes. It allows you to explore and determine if it is a good career path for you, and it can enhance your credentials for applying to a professional or graduate program. Shadowing can be valuable in any field and some graduate school programs in health care require you to complete a minimum number of volunteer or shadowing hours to be considered for admission.