If you’re in high school and thinking about pursuing a career in health care, you’ve probably started looking into medical summer programs for high school students.

There are a lot of options out there, and they all promise very different things. Some focus on clinical skills; others focus on public health and uplifting the communities behind the statistics. Knowing the different kind of programs available and how they can assist you in your journey towards a career in medicine is the first step towards finding a medical summer program that not only benefits you but contributes ethically to the communities being served.

What You Can Learn Before College

You don’t need to be pre-med to start understanding how health solutions work. A lot of what keeps people healthy happens outside the doctor’s office. Clean water, safe housing, and being able to easily get to a clinic shapes a community’s health as much as any appointment does.

Public health spheres call these the social determinants of health. Seeing them up close and within actual context can make your biology and chemistry classes feel a lot more connected to real life.

What To Look For In Medical Summer Programs For High School Students

Not every program offers the same experience, or has the same honesty about what they do. As you begin to compare options, look out for these key elements:

• A clear description of your role. You should know exactly what you’ll do and what you won’t before even signing up for a trip. High school students aren’t qualified to provide medical care, and a good program won’t suggest otherwise. On MEDLIFE’s high school Service Learning Trips, students act as support for the trained medical professionals working in mobile clinics. Participants typically work in the triage station, guide patients through different areas of the clinic, assist in educational presentations, or help disperse medicine within the pharmacy station.
• Public health education. Workshops on health equity and the basics of epidemiology give you context for what you’ll see and the populations you’ll be working alongside. Guided sessions on the ethics of working within medically underserved areas helps you understand your place in it and how to approach with humility and an educated lens.
• Community-led projects. Look for programs where the community decides what gets built. MEDLIFE SLT participants assist with projects like staircases and water access systems that communities identify themselves as an immediate need affecting their health outcomes. This kind of work helps students understand infrastructure as a large factor contributing to health.
• Guided reflection. Regular group discussions after every day in the field give you space to process what you witnessed and its wider cultural context and implications. They’re also where you learn to question your own assumptions and practice an open minded approach to learning about different cultures and health systems.
• Safety and supervision. This should be at the forefront of any program organizing trips abroad for minors. Have a parent or guardian look over the specific safety protocols of a student travel program and verify if they feel comfortable for both you and them. There should be established systems like 24/7 on the ground support, verified transportation through reputable services, safe and clean accommodations, as well as open communication between parents and the organization’s staff.

Skills That Last Beyond The Trip

Working with a team in an unfamiliar place teaches you things a classroom simply can’t. You’ll practice listening carefully, especially to local health workers and community members who know their own community far better than you do. You’ll also learn to communicate respectfully across language barriers and cultural differences. Those skills matter whether or not you end up in medicine.

Where To Start

A good summer program won’t turn you into a doctor within one summer, and it shouldn’t claim to. What it can do is help you understand what health care really involves, and who makes it work in a community.

If that’s what you’re looking for in a medical summer program for high school students, consider exploring MEDLIFE’s high school Service Learning Trips. To get started today, fill out the interest form below!