Community Engagement
Health professional programs expect applicants to demonstrate a desire to help, work with, and understand others.
Working in healthcare requires a service orientation and commitment to your community. Engage your campus community through student organizations, a Community Service & Civic Engagement program, and/or a Service-Learning course. Volunteer in meaningful ways to become an engaged and educated citizen dedicated to helping others.
The Active Citizen Continuum. Break Away. Retrieved August 14, 2023, from http://alternativebreaks.org
Campus Involvement
College is a time to explore new interests, make friends, establish relationships, and gain teamwork experience. It is important to make time for meaningful extracurricular activities that allow you to actively engage with and give back to your community, in addition to studying. One of the best ways to create connections with others who share your ideals, interests, and/or career goals is to become involved on campus!
The websites below will help you begin your quest to find engaging and meaningful opportunities on campus.
Office of Community Service & Civic Engagement
- “For students, community engagement offers critical experiential learning opportunities that allow them to understand and have an impact in the world. This team oversees a robust suite of community engagement programs as well as offers training, reflections and consultations. With an asset-based lens to community engagement and a commitment to strong reciprocal community partnerships, CSCE facilitates meaningful experiences for students, staff, and community partners. “
Center for Student Involvement
- “The Center for Student Involvement encourages and facilitates a broad spectrum of educational and social co-curricular opportunities designed to enhance the experiential learning and holistic development of our students.”
Cultural and Spiritual Life (Cultural Life Centers)
- “We are here to advance freedom, promote justice, assist in building relationships between groups and individuals, facilitate inclusivity, educate across difference, empower our communities as well as provide resources and information to everyone within the Northeastern Network.”
PreMed and PreHealth Student Organizations
Included in the resources above are student organizations centered on professional interests and aspirations in the areas we advise. They include, but are not limited to the following. A full listing of student organizations at Northeastern University can be found here.
Alpha Epsilon Delta (The National Health Preprofessional Honor Society)
Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED) is the National Health Preprofessional Honor Society dedicated to the encouragement and recognition of excellence in preprofessional health scholarship. Northeastern’s chapter includes undergraduate students on the pre-med, pre-PA, pre-vet, pre-PT and pre-dental track.
American Medical Student Association (NU AMSA)
NU AMSA offers students from all backgrounds a chance to join a community of pre-medical focused individuals like themselves. We provide helpful seminars and activities, invite speakers and collaborate with other organizations to help guide you through your journey, no matter what stage.
American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA)
The American Medical Women’s Association is an organization which functions at the local, national, and international level to advance women in medicine and improve women’s health. We achieve this by providing and developing leadership, advocacy, education, expertise, mentoring, and strategic alliances.
inSIGHT
inSIGHT is an organization that provides a foundation for students who have an interest in an eye-health related field. We plan to host meetings where we will invite professionals from the field to talk about their careers, share scientific articles about the most recent advances in the “eye world”, talk about upcoming application due dates and testing strategies, and network with graduate programs to learn more about educational opportunities in this field. Overall, we will help each other figure out what is best for us in terms of a career!
Minority Association of Pre-Health Students (MAPS)
The Northeastern University MAPS chapter exists to support current and future underrepresented medical students, addressing the needs of underserved communities, and increasing the number of clinically excellent, culturally competent and socially conscious physicians.
Phi Delta Epsilon Medical Fraternity
Phi Delta Epsilon was founded in 1904 at Cornell University Medical College and since then has amassed more than 150 medical and premedical chapters around the world. Students at Northeastern University could be potentially invited into an expansive network of physicians and students which embraces diversity and pushes its members towards achieving the highest standards in the medical community.
Pre-Dental Association
The Pre-Dental Association is a student organization at Northeastern University comprised of those students aspiring to pursue careers in the dental profession. We meet monthly to discuss the application process, examine strategies for facing the Dental Admission Test and engage in activities that broaden our understanding of dentistry.
Pre-Physician Assistant Society (Pre-PA Society)
The purpose of the Pre-PA Society is to educate students about the PA profession and guide those interested in pursuing this career. The Society will help students decipher required coursework and promote academic achievement, as well as aid in the preparation for the graduate school admission process. Furthermore, interactions with health care professionals and graduate students will give undergraduates insight to this rapidly growing and competitive field. Society meetings will also help to facilitate communication among pre-PA students.
Pre-Veterinary Club (NUPVC)
Northeastern University Pre-Veterinary Club (NUPVC) is a group for students who are considering applying to veterinary school, and students with an interest in any field of veterinary medicine.
The Student Osteopathic Medical Association (Pre-SOMA)
The purpose of the Student Osteopathic Medical Association, the student affiliate organization of the American Osteopathic Association, is to promote osteopathic ideals and unity within the profession, to educate future osteopathic physicians, and to establish and to maintain lines of communication among healthcare professionals in an ongoing effort to improve the quality of healthcare.
Virtual Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteering virtually allows applicants to provide essential support to communities in need without the barriers imposed by physical location. Virtual volunteering is safe, can be global in scope, and may be accommodated alongside a busy academic and/or work schedule.
- Mentor with CovEducation
- Become a Counselor with Crisis Text Line
- Operation Warm
- Paper Airplanes Virtual Tutoring
- Reading Partners
- Code.org
- LearnToBe.org
- UPchieve.org
- TeensGive.org
- Cards for Hospitalized Kids
- DOROT’s Caring Calls Program
- Tarjimly
- Find Virtual Volunteer Opportunities on Points of Light’s Volunteer Hub
Community & Healthcare Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteering with your local community and in healthcare settings can provide applicants with a basic understanding of community needs and healthcare systems while allowing them the opportunity to give back to underserved or underrepresented populations.
By Location:
BOSTON HOSPITALS AND HEALTH CENTERS
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
- Boston Children’s Hospital
- Boston Medical Center
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital MCEP Volunteer Program
- Dana-Farber Cancer Center
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Massachusetts Eye and Ear
- New England Baptist Hospital
- Tufts Medical Center
GREATER MASSACHUSETTS HOSPITALS
- Cape Cod Hospital (Hyannis)
- Faulkner Hospital
- Lowell General (Lowell)
- Mount Auburn Hospital (Cambridge)
- Newton Wellesley Hospital (Newton)
- Umass Memorial Medical Center (Worcester)
BAY AREA/OAKLAND
- Alameda Community Food Bank
- Almeda Health System
- Alta Bates Summit Medical Center
- Asian Health Services
- Books for Wider Horizons
- East Oakland Initiative
- Eden Medical Center
- Kaiser Permanente
- Project Open Hand
- UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland
By Service Type:
CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS/PEDIATRIC SERVICES
- Boston Children’s Hospital
- Christopher’s Haven
- Franciscan Children’s Hospital
- Horizon’s for Homeless Children Playspace Volunteer
- Ronald McDonald House
- Yawkey Family Inn at Boston Children’s Hospital
COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES
- AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
- Boston Living Center (supporting HIV positive individuals)
- City Natives (community garden and learning center – help combat food insecurity in the city)
- Community Servings (food insecurity)
- Family Van
- Haley House
- Hospice of Massachusetts
- Hope Lodge through the American Cancer Society
- Make-A-Wish Foundation
- Oxfam America Interns and Volunteer
- Spaulding Rehab Hospital Adaptive Sports Program
HOMELESS SERVICES
- Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program
- New England Center for Homeless Vets
- Pine Street Inn
- Rosie’s Place
- St Francis House
MENTAL HEALTH/IDENTITY AFFIRMING/CRISIS SUPPORT
- Boston Area Rape Crisis Center
- Casa Myrna (supporting victims of domestic violence)
- Crisis Text Line Volunteer
- Fenway Health Center Helpline/Peer Listening Line (serving the LGBTQ community)
- Mclean Hospital
- NAMI of MA Volunteer
- Samaritan’s: You are not Alone
- Trevor Project Crisis Support Counselor Volunteer
ELDER CARE
- Ethos (supporting elderly community members)
- Friendship Works
- Hebrew Senior Life
- Somerville and Cambridge Elder Services
VETERINARY SERVICES
- Animal Rescue League Boston
- Franklin Park Zoo
- MSPCA (Animal Hospital/Shelter)
- New England Aquarium