10 Summer Medical Programs for High School Students in Tennessee
- Stephen Turban
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
If you are a high school student in Tennessee interested in medicine, biomedical sciences, or other related fields, a medical program is a great way to spend your summer break!
Tennessee is home to many institutions that offer high school students a chance to engage in medical programs in the summer to get hands-on internship experiences, research, shadowing, college-level medical coursework, and other activities. Such programs can also help you explore career paths in medicine, develop professional and personal communication skills, network with medical professionals, and interact with peers from across the globe. Participating in a medical program is also a good way to explore your interest in the field of medicine and decide if this is something you want to pursue in the future.
These experiences also look great on your college application and CV, as they highlight your willingness to learn beyond the classroom and get a head start in your career.
To help you get started, we have compiled a list of 10 summer medical programs for high school students in Tennessee:
Location: Virtual
Dates: Varies as per the type of program (individual/premium+publication/fellowship)
Application deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort | May 11 is the deadline for the upcoming summer cohort
Eligibility: High school students
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous virtual research program tailored for high school students interested in conducting independent research in a field and on a topic of their choice. You can choose Medicine and Public Health on your application form to conduct research in the field. During the program, you will be paired with a Ph.D. mentor to work 1-on-1 on coming up with a research topic as well as conducting and writing the research. You will attend online workshops on the research process and wrap up the virtual program with a completed research paper! You can find more details about the application here.
Location: Virtual
Dates: Vary according to session | You will typically have to commit 25 hours over 10 weeks on weekends
Application deadline: May 25 for the summer session I and June 22 for session II
Eligibility: Students in grades 8 – 12 who have a background in coding or have completed the AI Scholars program
Veritas AI’s Deep Dive AI + Medicine program is an online live bootcamp for high school students interested in exploring the role of AI in medicine and getting some hands-on experience in these fields. Here, you will get to work on a group project with peers and also explore the role of AI in the healthcare and medical fields. You will work on real-world assignments, using AI & ML models to diagnose diseases, sharpen medical scans, and explain their outcomes to aid doctors and patients. Over 10 weeks, you will attend interactive lectures, engage in discussions, and attend workshops with leading AI researchers in the medical field. You will also explore topics like medical data preparation, EDA, and convolutional neural networks, image segmentation, and more. You can learn more about the program here.
Cost: None
Location: Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), Johnson City, TN
Dates: Doc for a Day: June 6; Medical Camp: June 9 – 13
Application deadline: April 25
Eligibility: Tennessee students from rural high schools, as well as out-of-state counties bordering Northeast Tennessee with a minimum 3.0 GPA | Doc for a Day is for rising high school juniors, while the Medical Camp is for rising high school seniors or recent graduates
As part of EQUIP (Extending Quillen to the Underserved through an Integrated Program), ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine hosts two summer programs for high schoolers: the Rural High School Medical Camp and Doc for a Day.
The Doc for a Day is a one-day event that can offer you insights into the medical profession, especially if you are considering pursuing rural or primary care medicine. You will get to tour the ETSU campus and Quillen College of Medicine’s anatomy lab and simulation centre. You will also participate in discussions with admissions counselors to explore the medical programs offered at the university. The Rural High School Medical Camp, conducted annually, is a competitive program with up to 20 participants. If accepted into the program, you get to stay in the campus dormitory free of cost, tour the campus, and explore fields in medicine, such as sports medicine, public health, wilderness medicine, and more.
Cost/Stipend: Free to attend | A stipend is offered.
Location: College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Dates: June 9 – July 11 (40 hours/week)
Application deadline: February 28
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors in Tennessee with a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA who are at least 16 years old | Applicants should be first-time program VSEP participants and have the confirmation of a university-approved local veterinary practice site
The Veterinary Summer Experience Program (VSEP), hosted by the University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM), is a chance for high school students to explore the veterinary profession. VSEP is a selective program; it accepted just 12 students out of 150 applications in the past! If selected, you will spend four weeks of shadowing at a local UTCVM-approved veterinary practice and attend one week of academic sessions at the university campus. You will also get to take a tour of the labs during the program. This experience can help you get some hands-on experience and academic insights into the veterinary field.
Cost: Free
Location: UT Martin Outreach Centre, Ripley, TN
Dates: July 21 – 25
Application deadline: May 1
Eligibility: Rising 11th and 12th graders
Hosted by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), High School to Health Care (HS2HC) is a pre-college academic program. It aims to create opportunities for underserved students and educators to explore careers in medical lab sciences and public health information technology. A key focus of the program is offering an introduction to healthcare, lab science, and data science. During this in-person program, you will attend college classes and work on your communication, teamwork, and professional skills. Taking a case-based approach to learning, you will acquire hands-on skills in laboratory medicine using common lab tools and access healthcare data alongside the UTHSC faculty. You will learn about interprofessional collaboration, patient safety, licensure, basics of cytotechnology and histotechnology, management of healthcare data, and more! You will earn college credit and receive a Gift Card upon completing the program.
Cost: Free (travel expenses for field trips to a participating institution are not covered)
Location: Baptist Health Sciences University (BHSU), Memphis, TN
Dates: June 9 – 13
Application deadline: No information available; however, registration opens in March
Eligibility: Rising 6th – 12th graders
The HealthCORE Summer Camp, hosted by the BHSU, is a five-day interactive program offering an introduction to professional careers in healthcare and STEM. Here, you will explore niche fields such as diagnostics, biomedical sciences, medical lab sciences, and nursing. At HealthCORE, you will also engage in hands-on lab exercises such as dissections and identification of a virus, clinical observation, a campus tour, and educational events. You will explore topics like microbes, forensic techniques, respiratory care, stroke education, chiropractic stretches, and more! During the program, you may also learn basic first-aid techniques, how to treat injuries, and the benefits of music on health.
Cost/Stipend: Free program with a stipend of $4,800
Location: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN
Dates: June 2 – July 26
Application deadline: January 31
Eligibility: High school juniors who are at least 16 and have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 | Applicants must reside in the Memphis-Shelby County area or immediate surrounding counties in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas
The St. Jude High School Research Immersion Program (HSRI) is an opportunity to participate in mentored research projects in the St. Jude labs. Here, you will be paired with a peer to work on your research project in areas such as psychology, epidemiology, clinical, or data science under the guidance of a research mentor. During the program, you also get to engage in discussions with a science educator. In these sessions, you will develop a personal statement for your college application that reflects how the learning experience in the research program influenced your self-perception as a future scientist. The program wraps up with a scientific poster presentation of your research findings in a community exhibition.
Cost: $1,300 | Financial aid is available
Location: Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN
Dates: July 11 – 18
Application deadline: April 15
Eligibility: Current high school juniors with a minimum cumulative high school GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale over six completed semesters; If applying as test-optional, the student must have a minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA. Applicants must also have a minimum composite score of ACT 24 or SAT 1160 (ERW+M) or CLT score of 79.
Libspcomb University’s Summer Scholars Program offers multiple courses, including the Lipscomb HCA/Tri-Star Health Sciences course, to high-achieving seniors interested in exploring health science careers. The Lipscomb HCA/Tri-Star Health Sciences offers an immersive learning experience with opportunities to engage in hands-on lab work. You will also learn from presentations on the skills and knowledge required for a range of health professions, such as nursing, pharmacy, kinesiology, nutrition, and more. Off-campus visits to tourist attractions and other sites are also part of the program. If selected and able to complete the program, you get three hours of college credit and guaranteed admission to Lipscomb University.
Cost: $2,450 for one-week programs; $4,850 for the two-week program | A $50 application fee ($100 for international students) is charged | Need-based financial aid is available.
Location: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Dates: One-week programs for rising 9th and 10th graders: June 8 – 14 and July 6 – 12; one-week programs for rising 11th and 12th graders: June 22 – 28 and July 13 – 19; two-week program for rising 11th and 12th graders: July 6 – 18
Application deadline: January 14 (priority application deadline); Regular applications are accepted till March 14 and beyond if spots remain
Eligibility: Rising 9th to 12th graders who can submit test scores or portfolios to qualify
Vanderbilt Summer Academy offers high school students accelerated one- and two-week, choice-based, six-hour, rigorous academic courses. Here, you can opt for courses covering topics such as epidemiology, virology, immunology, human physiology, mental health, and pharmacology, among others. For instance, the “Engineering the Human Body: From Health to Disease” course covers concepts like cell biology, device prototyping, and the technology of creating a human body prototype in a lab to advance science. You will also engage in hands-on activities and lab experiments, group discussions, and self-directed projects to explore biomedical and health science disciplines.
Cost: Free
Location: Orientation at Methodist University Hospital, Memphis, TN, and volunteering at the assigned facility—Methodist University, North, South, Germantown, and Olive Branch Hospitals in TN.
Dates: June 2 (orientation) and June 3 – 26 (volunteering period)
Application deadline: April 18
Eligibility: High school students between the ages of 16 and 18
The Summer VolunTEEN Program offered by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is a volunteering opportunity. This program can help you develop an understanding of various healthcare careers while you give back to society and provide high-quality supplemental services to patients, visitors, and staff. You will initially attend a five-hour orientation program at the Methodist University Hospital and then begin your three-and-a-half-week volunteering stint. Through this program, you can gain key interpersonal skills as well as insights into the daily hospital operations.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
Image Source - Lumiere Research Scholar Program logo