<p>My uncle offered me a short term position (nothing big, just a small internship job and message carrying job) at his work place last summer. He is currently at Northwestern. Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to help out last summer as I have nothing else to do (he lives in Chicago) and I said yes. I helped him with his research but I didn't do anything major, just small things like western blots for him. Does this count as research? He said he will put my name in the research report he is publishing sometime this year because he told I helped but I don't feel like I did all that much other than a few western blots (really the only thing I could actually help him on as he taught me how over the course of a month freshman year) and the only other things I did was take messages to him and to others in the same building for him. Should I include this as "research" if my name is on the report but all I did was a few western blots and take messages? </p>
<p>Second, the same uncle runs a charity and I help him manage the data of the kids he helps and sent money to. The charity works on sending money to the poorer children in India and is currently funded mostly by the family and hasn't really begun to branch out yet. I mainly just review which kids (as it is a small charity we only managed to sponsor a few children) get what and make sure that there are no mistakes in the process. I also gave my recommendations for the site although I did no real design. Would this be counted as a good EC if I told colleges what I worked on and how I helped the charity although my Uncle is the one who founded it?</p>
<p>Its positively exciting to see someone who isn’t ‘spinning’ their lowly bottle washing job in a lab into ‘curing cancer.’ </p>
<p>That said, yes, you have research experience because you have worked in a lab environment. You contributed to the collection of data (I’m guessing - don’t know what a western blot is) and to the day-to-day operations. It would be nice if your uncle spent some additional time explaining what the purpose of the research is, how it fits into the larger intellectual debate on that topic, and what kind of analysis will be done with the data - so you learn something more from your experience. This isn’t ‘I cured cancer’ - but it doesn’t have to be. It shows interest, initiative and hopefully, helped bring you a bit closer to figuring out what you do or don’t want to do with your life.</p>
<p>And yes, working on a family charity also counts. Again, it’s not running a refugee camp - but you have had the opportunity to see how a small philanthropic non-profit works, know the kind of impact you can have, and again, hopefully, it has broadened your world and given you something to think and talk about. If not, start asking more questions about the organization’s mission, its goals, how it knows if its making a difference, and what can you do to make it more successful.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response, it eased my tension a good bit. Western Blot is a lot like Gel Electrophoresis in the forensic field and is used mainly to detect specific protiens in a sample of DNA (ie some tissue from a lab rat). I just pretty much did this but I didn’t do anything else this science oriented. Also, does it matter what the charity focuses on or how large of a charity it is?</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t matter except that you care about it and the size is also irrelevant. Of course, since both of these ECs involve working for family members, it wouldn’t be appropriate to ask for an additional letter of recommendation, as it might had your supervisor not been related to you. On the other hand, you probably were given more responsibility than a random volunteer would have been given because you are family. </p>
<p>Now you just need to figure out what you learned from the experience and how it translates into what you do or don’t want to do in the future.</p>