About Summer Medical Academy
Our signature program, the Summer Medical Academy (SMA) is an educational summer program that provides high school-age students with unique and exciting opportunities to explore the world of medical training and practice. SMA is for students who have an interest in healthcare as a career, and to inspire those students to become caring, insightful health professionals in a complex and rapidly changing world. The program utilizes a mixture of lectures /interactive discussions, hands-on skills clinics, group projects, career panels, and team building/networking/self-care activities.
Throughout the program, faculty, group mentors, and program staff encourage and support students to identify and reflect upon their interest and motivation for pursuing a career in healthcare. SMA is coordinated by the Rady Children’s Center for Healthier Communities in collaboration with a number of community partners, such as the UCSD School of Medicine, Illumina, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and the UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy.
Learning, Doing, Sharing – During this 2-week intensive, learn about the wide range of possibilities in a healthcare career; gets hands-on experience through different skills clinics; hear about key topics in medicine from experts; and make connections with future colleagues.
Learn about the results of our latest 2-week programs through the 2024 program summaries.
Please check out our 2024-25 program flyer for upcoming Medical Academy offerings!
After completing our 9th year of programming, the Medical Academy program now has 559 program alumni and is consistently highly recommended by students.
“It’s fantastic. I’ve learned so much important information about the health care field. This whole experience has reassured my desire to go into medicine. I hope I can participate in more academies and programs.”
“The Summer Medical Academy greatly exceeded my expectations. Each day was different and in depth about each topic. I loved it.”
