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Map healthcare careers through research and patient cases in this 2-week program for high school students on the University of Michigan campus.
Rated 4.3 out of 5 for overall experience by students surveyed across the broader program in 2026.
Course Description
A healthcare career can branch in several directions. Trace the choices behind a profession before deciding which parts of the work interest you.
In this course you will compare roles including doctor, nurse, hospital administrator, pharmacist, dentist, and vaccine researcher. Coursework, extracurricular preparation, and professional training show what different paths involve.
Careers also connect with medical ethics, health disparities, biomedical research, costs and reform, personal wellness, and mental health. Guest speakers and possible visits to University of Michigan medical facilities bring perspectives from clinical, research, administrative, and commercial work.
With a team, choose a profession and develop three or four fictional cases following people from different backgrounds. Trace academic requirements, extracurricular preparation, branching paths, and wellness alongside possibilities in research, leadership, consulting, or biotechnology. Present the cases and explain your own interest in the profession. Discussion and feedback help you check whether the paths you describe fit the evidence.
This two-week Summer Discovery course takes place on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The course is available to residential and commuter students.
A supplemental course fee of $95 applies.
What You Will Do
• Compare education and responsibilities across healthcare careers
• Examine medical ethics, disparities, costs, and healthcare reform
• Research clinical, administrative, biotechnology, and research roles
• Develop a care plan for a complex patient scenario
• Learn from healthcare professionals and medical facilities when available
• Create and present a case-based career pathway project
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Compare healthcare professions by responsibilities, education, and professional pathways
• Analyze ethical, equity, wellness, and system considerations in healthcare
• Develop and present researched career cases for a selected health profession
You’ll leave with your team’s case-based career project and a certificate of completion.
Why Healthcare Skills Matter
Healthcare career exploration helps students distinguish roles that may require different education, responsibilities, working environments, and strengths. Comparing pathways early can make future academic choices and exploration more informed.
Ethics, disparities, costs, reform, and wellness add context beyond job titles. Students see how professionals work inside a complex system and how personal sustainability matters in demanding careers. Case-based research develops planning, empathy, and communication.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
You may be interested in patient care, a research question, or the decisions behind a hospital. This course gives you room to compare medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, biotechnology, public health, and healthcare leadership before choosing a direction. Research, patient-case analysis, teamwork, and presentations help you explore those possibilities. The work includes respectful discussion of complex healthcare issues.
Recommended by More Than 9 out of 10 Students
Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 program at the University of Michigan.
Your Summer at University of Michigan
Programs on the University of Michigan campus give high-school students the experience of exploring an academic interest in Ann Arbor, a college town where campus and community life blend together. Tree-lined streets, downtown bookstores and cafés, the Nichols Arboretum, and trails near the Huron River create different ways to experience the setting beyond class.
Students learn alongside peers, navigate a large and active campus, and gain independence through everyday choices in a new environment. The experience helps students understand what university life can feel like while giving them space to deepen an interest without having every next step decided. For families, the program offers a meaningful combination of academic depth, community, personal growth, and clearer direction about what a student may want to study or pursue next.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive