Spend the first week learning basic medical skills and getting training on how to handle situations when medical care is not immediately available. Simulations will allow you to learn and practice hands-on medical techniques including positioning and extraction, wound care, control of bleeding, stitches and sutures, usage of splints and slings, and other useful potentially life-saving skills.

The second week focuses on being a detective doctor. In small groups, you will be given limited information on a simulated patient whose life depends on the success of your work. Your medical team will be required to research the patient’s history and symptoms, create a diagnosis based on your findings, and develop a treatment plan. This simulation will teach you how to respond to a patient just like a medical professional, assessing information and applying your medical knowledge in high pressure environments.

Throughout the program, meet a variety of experts in the field of healthcare that will provide advice and tips on academic preparation and professional pathways to explore. Take excursions to real life clinical facilities and meet with real world experts. Whether it’s getting a behind-the-scenes tour of a local hospital, touring a collection of brains from one of the world’s most renowned neurosurgeons, or meeting with a healthcare entrepreneur, these encounters will broaden your perspective about the field of medicine and healthcare. Last summer’s guest speakers included Dr. Jessica Coviello, a professor at the Yale School of Nursing.

Med School Panel: Meet with students currently enrolled in med school and ask them everything you’ve ever wanted to know: admissions, prerequisites, workload, and more! They will share an inside perspective into one of the nation’s most prestigious centers of medical education.

Through our True You curriculum, students engage in a series of personality assessments, interest inventories, and reflection sessions to learn more about who they are and how that aligns with potential academic and career choices. This helps students make better informed decisions about some of life’s most important choices. We will also discuss the wide variety of professions within the medical field, such as physical therapy, physician's assistants, phlebotomy and more.

Our summer medical program was designed by Busi M. Mafanya, M.D., M.P.H. Dr. Mafanya is a neurologist with extensive experience in South Africa. She obtained her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College. After medical school and residency in Cape Town, she completed further training in public health at Harvard University. Her global perspective on medicine and public health provide a lens to support the development of this curriculum. While our instructors at each campus change from year to year, Dr. Mafanya is an ongoing advisor to this program.