15 Medical Programs for High School Students in South Dakota
- Stephen Turban
- 4 minutes ago
- 9 min read
If you are interested in medicine, programs led by healthcare facilities, clinical research centers, and medical colleges are a good way to explore the field. From research opportunities to clinical programs, medical programs allow you to try college-style learning, build practical skills, and connect with professors and healthcare professionals.
What medical programs are available for high schoolers in South Dakota?
South Dakota is home to healthcare facilities, universities, and research centers that conduct clinical research and offer medicine-focused learning experiences for high school students. You can choose from short-term camps, research-focused experiences, certifications, and volunteer opportunities, depending on your interests and level of commitment. Whether you want an introduction to healthcare careers or a more focused experience in research or clinical settings, these programs give you a structured way to explore the field.
To help you with your search, we have put together a list of 15 medical programs for high school students in South Dakota.
If you’re looking for online research internships, check out our blog here.
1. Scrubs Camp
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Open enrollment
Location: Various sites across SD
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: One-day events at various locations
Application Deadline: Not specified | Contact AHEC coordinators for more information
Eligibility: High school students.
Organized by the South Dakota Department of Health and its partners, Scrubs Camp introduces high schoolers to different healthcare fields and the overall industry. You will learn about the medical field through a range of activities, including workshops, simulations, presentations, and field trips to healthcare facilities. You will also gain exposure to medicine while observing medical procedures, practicing basic medical skills, and learning about healthcare technologies. The camp offers insights into various paths, including nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, physical therapy, and medical research. At camp, you will interact with healthcare professionals to learn about educational requirements and career paths within their specific field.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective | Small mentor-matched cohorts
Location: Remote
Cost: Varies by track | Financial aid available
Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year: June – August | September – December | December – February | March – June
Application Deadline: Varying deadlines by cohort: January | May | September | November
Eligibility: Currently enrolled high school students; a strong academic record is recommended.
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program tailored for high school students. The program offers extensive 1-on-1 research opportunities for high school students across a broad range of subject areas. The program pairs high school students with Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the 12-week program, you’ll have developed an independent research paper! You can choose research topics from subjects such as psychology, physics, economics, data science, computer science, engineering, chemistry, international relations, and more. You can find more details about the application here, and check out students’ reviews of the program here and here.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Sanford USD Medical Center Campus, Sioux Falls, SD | Sanford Research, Sioux Falls, SD
Cost: Free
Dates: June 11 and 12
Application Deadline: Not specified | First-come, first-served enrollment
Eligibility: Students in grades 9 and 10.
Sanford’s Body Works is a two-day early exposure program focused on medical pathways and anatomy. As a participant, you will learn about the body, focusing on organs, tissues, and cells, as well as explore various healthcare careers. You will also participate in activities like guided dissections and lab experiments. Additionally, you will connect with healthcare professionals and explore Sanford Health facilities.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies by program type | Financial aid available
Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year
Application Deadline: Varies by cohort
Eligibility: High school students with prior coding or AI experience.
This program offers a technical introduction to the intersection of medicine and artificial intelligence through project-based instruction. You will work on projects focused on the use of AI models in healthcare, for example, analyzing medical images or aiding disease detection. The curriculum focuses on machine learning skills and consistently links them to healthcare use cases. You will also practice explaining technical results in ways doctors and patients could understand, which is actually an important real-world skill. This program can be useful if you are thinking about biomedical engineering, health data science, or medical AI research.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective | 40 students
Location: University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, Vermillion, SD
Cost: $100 per student | Scholarships available
Dates: June 8 – 13
Application Deadline: May 12
Eligibility: High school students who will be juniors or seniors in the fall.
This camp offers direct exposure to medical school-style environments through activities, tours, and discussions. You will learn about specialties such as cardiology and pediatrics, experience medical demonstrations, and connect with health care professionals. The program also offers exposure to college academics and campus life, allowing you to stay on USD's campus, connect with students and faculty, and learn about courses that can help you prepare for future healthcare careers. Additionally, you will tour local medical facilities and engage in recreational activities during the program.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Monument Health Hospital/Hospice House, Rapid City, SD
Cost: Free
Dates: Fall session: Starts in October | Spring session: Starts in February | Summer session: Begins in June
Application Deadline: Fall: Last day of September | Spring: Last day of January | Summer: Last day of May | Commitment: 10–12 weeks, minimum 30 hours
Eligibility: Students ages 16–18 who have completed a Monument Health Job Shadow (single 2–4 hour stint).
This volunteer program allows you to contribute to patient care and support for patients and their families at Monument Health. Here, you will commit to a two- to four-hour shift on the same day and time every week, assisting the assigned facility’s staff across departments. You will complete an orientation and required onboarding training during the service period. With positions available across various hospital departments, this can be an opportunity to gain hands-on exposure to hospital workflows and patient care.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: South Dakota Mines, Rapid City, SD
Cost: $350
Dates: June 8 – 11
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Students entering their freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior year of high school.
This South Dakota Mines camp is designed to introduce you to healthcare career paths over 4 days. You will learn about healthcare roles through discussions with students and local professionals, hands-on lab experiences, and tours of nearby clinical facilities. The program also offers insights into healthcare-focused pathways at South Dakota Mines. This can be an opportunity to explore a college campus and plan your next steps to pursue a career in medicine.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Hybrid/virtual at Sanford Health Center for Pre-Hospital Care and Simulation, Sioux Falls, SD, and regional hospitals
Cost: $875 | $375 after grant funding
Dates: Fall and spring sessions | One semester each
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: High school students in their senior year.
This certification-focused course prepares you to become an EMT-Basic while still in high school. You will complete online coursework and in-person skills labs covering trauma response, airway management, and patient assessment. High-fidelity manikins are used to simulate emergency scenarios like cardiac arrest and childbirth. After finishing the course, you will be eligible to take the national EMT exam. Conducted during school hours as a part of your high school curriculum, the course allows you to balance school work and attend flexibly through online engagement.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Dakota State University, Madison, SD (hybrid)
Cost: $78.48 per credit hour through the High School Dual Credit (HSDC) program
Dates: Spring, fall, and summer sessions available
Application Deadline: Varies by session | Spring: opens November 1 | Summer: opens March 1 | Fall: opens April 1
Eligibility: South Dakota high school juniors and seniors with a minimum 3.5 GPA; check detailed requirements here.
This program is an opportunity to enroll in college health science courses while in high school and earn college credit. You can enroll in multiple courses, including medical terminology, healthcare team roles, general psychology, and ethics. During the program, you will learn about various healthcare professions and become familiar with essential healthcare terminology. You can choose to attend the courses online or in person during the academic year or summer, based on your schedule. Upon completion, you will earn credits that can be applied to many health majors.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: South Dakota State University (SDSU), Brookings, SD
Cost: $100
Dates: July 15 – 18
Application Deadline: Not specified | First-come, first-served enrollment
Eligibility: Students entering their junior or senior year of high school.
This camp offers high schoolers hands-on experience with multiple health professions. Over the course of four days, you will participate in demonstrations at the SDSU campus and gain insight into nursing, biology, microbiology, medical laboratory science, pharmacy, pre-professional programs, human nutrition, exercise science, and healthcare systems engineering. You will visit local healthcare facilities and specialty clinics to learn about their operations. Additionally, you will attend question-and-answer panel sessions where you can interact directly with healthcare professionals from various fields.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Black Hills State University, Spearfish, SD | Black Hills State University, Rapid City, SD
Cost: $50
Dates: June 8 – 11 (Spearfish) | June 22 – 25 (Rapid City)
Application Deadline: Not specified (TBA)
Eligibility: Middle school students entering grades 6–8 and high school students entering grades 9–12 in the fall.
Run in collaboration with South Dakota State University, AHEC, and Black Hills State University, this day camp gives you the opportunity to explore nursing as a career through hands-on experiences. You will participate in sessions focused on nursing care and the science behind medical practice, led by university nursing faculty and local medical professionals. The camp includes tours of local healthcare facilities where you can see nursing in action. You will also have the chance to hear directly from professionals working in the field and learn what a nursing career involves.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: South Dakota Mines, Rapid City, SD
Cost: $350
Dates: June 22 – 25
Application Deadline: Not specified
Eligibility: Students entering their freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior year of high school, and recent high school graduates.
This hands-on camp is designed to help you explore biomedical engineering, a field that combines science, engineering, and modern medicine. You will learn about biomedical engineering from doctorate-level faculty, graduate biomedical engineering students, and industry partners while participating in high-tech activities. Here, you will get direct exposure to what studying and working in biomedical engineering involves through practical, hands-on experiences. The camp runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day from Monday through Thursday.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Virtual
Cost: Summer: $95 application fee + $4,580 program fee | Fall: $75 application fee + $2,480 program fee
Dates: Summer: July 27 – August 7 | Fall: 10 weeks (dates TBA)
Application Deadline: Summer: February 9 | Fall: June 1
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors, and undergraduate pre-med students who are at least 16 years old.
Stanford’s Clinical Summer Internship is a virtual, hands-on learning experience for high schoolers and undergraduates in pre-med. During the program, you will attend online lectures, simulations, and expert-led, activity-based sessions to explore techniques such as suturing, administering injections, and conducting physical exams. You will also work on real-world clinical cases, make diagnoses, and suggest treatment. You will examine medical challenges with your peers. The experience can help you explore medical specialties and build the technical skills required to pursue an education and career in medicine.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: 12%
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,725
Dates: Session 1: June 8 – 19 | Session 2: June 22 – July 3
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: High school students.
Stanford’s CNI-X is designed to help you explore neuroscience and mental health research. You will spend 10 days attending faculty-led seminars on neuroimaging, psychiatry, sleep science, and neurological disorders, among other related topics, and learn how doctors and scientists study the brain. The program also offers opportunities to connect with Stanford faculty and researchers, and offers insights into career opportunities in medicine and science. Small group projects will let you apply what you learn to real-world medical questions. Additionally, you will present a capstone neuroscience project at the end of the program.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,895 | Scholarships available
Dates: Multiple session lengths throughout the year
Application Deadline: One week before the session starts
Eligibility: Students aged 13 or older.
This virtual course offers insights into how medical research leads to the development of unique treatments. The course covers the medical research process, focusing on Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and its contribution to cancer research and prevention. You will learn how to develop a research question and follow ethical research practices through examination of case studies. The course also allows you to develop your own research study using professional tools and methodologies. For this, you will study medical journal articles and learn how to turn your research into a scientific article. The course ends with a capstone project where you will share your insights into the components of cancer research.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program in which students work one-on-one with a mentor to develop an independent research paper.
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