8 Summer Public Health Programs for Middle School Students in Texas
Texas middle schoolers who are curious about public health and medicine can opt for summer programs in the subject. These programs are designed to give you an introduction to medical and healthcare fields. Although they may not directly and specifically address public health, the overall perspective gives you scientific insights into the field. Other than academic knowledge, you can expect to develop field-specific skills that prepare you for a career in public health.
Experts from the field interact with you as they give diverse perspectives regarding health careers. Working on group projects provides an opportunity to build a network among your peers. Thus, to make the most of these benefits, we have compiled a list of summer public health programs you can participate in.
8 Summer Public Health Programs for Middle School Students in Texas
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; financial aid available
Dates: 8 weeks, varies by cohort
Application Deadline: Varies according to cohort
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 to 8
Middle schoolers in Texas who want to conduct original public health research can participate in Lumiere’s Junior Explorer Program. This program pairs you with PhD mentors from various prestigious universities, like Harvard, Oxford, MIT, and Princeton, who are experts in public health and allied fields. Conducting research equips you with field-specific knowledge. Furthermore, you learn how to read and interpret academic literature, build research questions, and create outputs such as a high school-level research paper or case study, which enables you to build crucial skills. The program also teaches you scientific communication skills through feedback and writing coaching sessions. You can opt for the Junior Research and Publication Program, where you can publish your research in academic journals.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,420
Dates: To be announced
Application Deadline: To be announced
Eligibility: Students in grades 7 – 11 who meet CTY-level quantitative or verbal scores
A doctor not only diagnoses and treats patients but also makes important healthcare decisions that affect patient health. This program takes you through the anatomy and physiology of various body systems, such as gastroenterology, endocrinology, nephrology, and microbiology. The program then teaches you to analyze various diagnosis and treatment methods and explain the purpose, effectiveness, and reasoning for why certain diagnostic tools are chosen. You analyze various diseases, compare symptoms, and explain their impact on the human body. You also discover the ethical dimension of healthcare and treatment.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies; financial aid available
Dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks (on weekends) during the spring cohort and 25 hours over 2 weeks (on weekdays) during the summer cohort.
Application Deadline: Rolling deadlines
Eligibility: Students in grades 6 – 8
Students interested in public health and technology can participate in an interdisciplinary program through Veritas AI’s AI Trailblazers program. The program teaches you the foundational basics of AI and machine learning. Through interactive lectures, you learn a range of topics such as Python, data analysis, regression, image classification, neural networks, and AI ethics. You then apply what you have learned to a project. For this project, you solve a real-world public health challenge using technology. Past students have built a machine-learning model to classify music genres and a machine-learning algorithm to provide a custom list of educational resources based on selected specifications.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Virtual
Cost: $575
Dates: To be announced
Application Deadline: One week before the start date
Eligibility: Students entering grades 6 – 8 who meet the Emerald-tier eligibility criteria
If you’re curious about how doctors investigate diseases to examine and treat them, you can opt for this program by Northwestern CTD. The program teaches you how healthcare providers diagnose illnesses, interpret symptoms, and solve complex health mysteries. During the program, you examine real case studies to understand how body systems work in sync, analyze symptoms, and consider diagnoses. Another aspect of the program deals with infectious diseases, genetics, environmental health, and medical technology, aspects that consider public health. At the end of the program, you work on a medical mystery case to investigate the disease and present your diagnosis and treatment based on evidence.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,895
Dates: Various sessions of different lengths are available
Application Deadline: Varies according to session
Eligibility: Students aged 13 and older
Regenerative medicine and technological advancements have an important bearing on public health. This program by Dartmouth introduces you to the latest innovations in regenerative medicine. You learn how science and innovation enable the repair and regeneration of the human body, which has lasting impacts on public health. The program introduces you to techniques and technologies used in regenerative medicine to analyze challenges like vascularization and tissue integration. How regenerative medicine addresses critical challenges like organ shortages, tissue repair, and disease treatment is addressed here along with real-life examples. For the final project, you propose regenerative medicine treatments, develop three approaches for individual cases, and consider social, economic, and ethical factors.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Texas Tech Health El Paso, El Paso, TX
Cost: None
Dates: January
Application Deadline: To be announced
Eligibility: Middle school students
This program by Texas Tech Health allows you to participate in hands-on healthcare activities. You delve into STEM subjects and explore various careers in healthcare, including public health. You participate in interactive workshops, explore clinical simulation laboratories, and learn how science and technology support patient care and biomedical discovery. The program also provides an opportunity to interact with field professionals. Thus, you discover the latest developments in healthcare and how they impact people at large.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not specified
Location: Online
Cost: $1,895; scholarships are available
Dates: Various sessions of different lengths are available
Application Deadline: Varies according to session
Eligibility: Students aged 13 and older
This program takes you through the patient journey. Here, you discover the various systems and professionals who make up the healthcare team, thereby providing insights into the public health mechanism. In addition to explaining the various roles of a healthcare team, the program teaches you about treatment plans for three cases: a kidney transplant, vascular disease, and cancer. Specialists from different healthcare fields talk to you about their career paths. The capstone project requires you to design an ideal healthcare team for congestive heart failure or thyroid cancer, which must include 5 healthcare providers. You must define their specific role and the different aspects of patient care within and outside the hospital.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Location: Online
Cost: $3,200; need-based financial aid is available
Dates: June 15 – 26 (Session 1) and July 6 – 17 (Session 2)
Application Deadline: March 13
Eligibility: Students in grades 8 – 11
Bioscience covers a range of subjects, including biology, healthcare, anatomy, and more. This program helps you develop a strong academic foundation for a career in various fields, including public health. You study the COVID-19 pandemic as a case to understand how viruses like COVID-19 infect our bodies, how their genetic material is translated into proteins, and how viruses evolve over time. In particular, the program explains the clinical, epidemiological, and computational methods that make up the foundation of research in human subjects, which is an important dimension of public health. You also study the science behind vaccines and how they fight viral diseases. You participate in lectures, group discussions, and collaborative projects.
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 where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.