Pre-Med Volunteer Shadowing Program

Over the 8‑10 week program, volunteers who are pre-med students will be assigned to a team of mentors within a specific specialty. Volunteers may shadow physicians on patient clinic visits, rounds, grand rounds, collaboration meetings and even in the operating room if they are assigned to a surgical specialty. The program includes weekly meetings with guest physicians to hear about their journeys in medicine.

As part of our ongoing commitment to our patients and staff, we incorporated a volunteer service component into the program. We have programs that will allow you to gain insights into how different departments operate and provide opportunities to interact with patients.

Please note that the Cedars‑Sinai Pre-Med Student Volunteer Shadowing Program is highly competitive and spaces in the program are limited.

Pre‑med student volunteers must be at least 18 years old. You will need to do the following:

• Submit an application
• Must have completed at least one semester of college
• Show a minimum GPA of 3.3
• Participate in group interview if selected
• Must be available to attend all sessions
• Have reliable transportation to commute to Cedars‑Sinai
• Must have completed a minimum of 100 adult volunteer hours at Cedars‑Sinai
• Volunteers who are also Cedars‑Sinai research interns will need to complete or pause their internships prior to participating in the Pre-Med Volunteer Program. Volunteers may not simultaneously participate in a Cedars-Sinai research internship and the Pre-Med Med Shadowing Program.

• Must be available to shadow mentors a minimum of 6 hours per week
• Must be available to attend weekly Wednesday meetings from 4–6 pm PT
• Log volunteer hours after each meeting and shadowing session
• Adhere to strict policies, guidelines and expectations regarding behavior, communication, confidentiality, privacy, shadowing, operating room protocols, and those set out by each related department

Applications for spring 2026 will open Nov. 3 and close Nov. 6 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Applications will only be accepted from existing volunteers. If you are not a volunteer yet, please review our volunteer programs available to complete prerequisite volunteer hours and apply.

If you are an existing volunteer and have completed the minimum 100 hour requirement, log in to your VSys Live portal, where you can complete the application. The Pre‑Med Program application will be visible when applications are open.

After reviewing all applications, we will contact you via email with updates or requests for interviews the week of Nov. 24. The spring session will run from approximately Feb. 9 to April 15, 2026. Dates are subject to change.