Best Extracurriculars for Future Nurses
Author: Extracurricular Hub
Article Summary
Best extracurriculars for future nurses. HOSA, hospital volunteering, CNA and EMT certifications, hospice, and a 4-year roadmap with a certification ladder for BSN applicants.
Full Article
Nursing is one of the most competitive direct-admit majors at most universities. Top BSN programs at schools like Penn, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, and Emory have acceptance rates lower than the universities themselves. What separates admitted nursing students is a coherent profile that proves you have actually been around healthcare — not just thought about it. This guide covers the specific extracurriculars, certifications, summer programs, and volunteer roles that build a strong pre-nursing application. Importantly, it includes a certification ladder you can climb over four years that opens up paid clinical work and proves serious commitment to the profession. What Nursing Admissions Officers Want BSN programs consistently look for the same signals: Direct patient-care exposure — Sustained time in healthcare settings around real patients, not just observation Compassion paired with leadership — Evidence that you can both care for people and organize others Science aptitude — Strong performance in biology, chemistry, and ideally anatomy or physiology Awareness of the realities of healthcare work — Understanding that nursing is physically demanding, emotionally heavy, and shift-based — not glamorous Ethical maturity — Comfort with questions about consent, end-of-life care, and patient autonomy Browse healthcare opportunities in our full directory — filter by Volunteer and Internship to find clinical roles. HOSA: Health Occupations Students of America HOSA is the single most relevant club for future nurses. It is a national career and technical student organization with chapters in over 4,000 high schools. HOSA combines healthcare-focused community service, regional and national competitions, leadership development, and connections with healthcare professionals. HOSA's competitive events directly mirror nursing skills: Nursing Assisting — Skills demonstration and written test on entry-level nursing tasks CPR/First Aid — Team event testing emergency response skills Medical Math — Calculations relevant to dosing and clinical practice Medical Spelling and Terminology — Foundational vocabulary for healthcare Health Career Display — Research and present on a specific healthcare career Public Service Announcement — Create a health-promotion video If your school does not have a HOSA chapter, starting one is itself a powerful leadership credential. Find competitions in our Competitions section. The Healthcare Certification Ladder This is the single most distinctive thing pre-nursing students can do. Each certification opens up new opportunities and proves serious commitment. Step 1: CPR/BLS and First Aid (Sophomore Year) The American Heart Association's Basic Life Support (BLS) and the American Red Cross's CPR/First Aid certifications are usually one-day classes for under $100. Many schools offer them free. These are entry-level credentials but required for almost all subsequent volunteer and certification opportunities. Step 2: Stop the Bleed and Mental Health First Aid (Sophomore/Junior Year) Stop the Bleed is a free, brief training in hemorrhage control developed by the American College of Surgeons. Mental Health First Aid is a longer (eight-hour) certification that teaches you to recognize and respond to mental health crises. Both add depth and signal that you take both physical and behavioral health seriously. Step 3: CNA — Certified Nursing Assistant (Junior Summer) The biggest certification jump. CNA programs are typically four to twelve weeks, available at community colleges and Red Cross chapters, and cost $500-$1,500 (often with financial aid available). Once certified, you can work paid shifts in nursing homes, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers — providing the kind of sustained, real clinical experience that nursing programs deeply value. Step 4: EMT-B — Basic Emergency Medical Technician (Senior Year, Optional) EMT-Basic is a more advanced certification (typically 120-150 hours of training) that prepares you to work on ambulances and in emergency departments. Some states allow 17- or 18-year-olds to certify. EMT-B opens doors to volunteer or paid pre-hospital care work and is impressive evidence of clinical seriousness. Clinical and Patient-Care Volunteering Beyond formal certifications, sustained volunteer work in healthcare settings is essential. Hospital Teen Volunteer Programs Almost every major hospital has a structured teen volunteer program. Roles range from greeting patients to delivering meals to staffing gift shops. The best programs let consistent volunteers move into more clinical-adjacent roles over time. Commit to weekly hours for at least a year. Hospice Volunteering Hospice work is one of the most powerful experiences a future nurse can have. You sit with terminally ill patients, support their families, and confront mortality directly. This is the kind of experience that produces compelling application essays and tells you whether you can handle nursing's hardest moments. Nursing Home and Assisted-Living Visits Weekly visits to a nursing home — reading to residents, playing music, leading craft activities — build rapport and demonstrate consistent commitment to elderly populations who are an increasing share of the patients nurses care for. Red Cross Youth and Blood Drives The American Red Cross has a robust youth program. Volunteering at blood drives, organizing them at your school, or supporting disaster response builds public-health-relevant experience. Vaccine Clinics and Community Health Fairs Local public health departments and free clinics often need help running community health events. This is an excellent introduction to public-health nursing. Mental Health Hotlines and Peer Support Some crisis text and call lines accept volunteers as young as 18 (so this typically becomes available senior year or summer after). Peer support training and youth mental health programs at your school can start earlier. Summer Programs for Future Nurses Stanford Medical Youth Science Program (SMYSP) Free five-week residential program at Stanford for low-income students from Northern and Central California. Focus on health disparities and biomedical science. Penn Medicine Summer Mentorship Program Free four-week program at the University of Pennsylvania for underrepresented Philadelphia-area students focused on health professions exposure. Mayo Clinic Alix School High School Pipeline Programs The Mayo Clinic offers several summer enrichment programs for high school students, including programs aimed at students from underrepresented backgrounds. Hospital-Based Summer Programs Many academic medical centers (NYU Langone, Cleveland Clinic, MD Anderson, etc.) run summer programs for high school students. These vary in selectivity and cost — search for "high school summer program" plus a hospital name in your region. Browse all options in our Summer Programs directory. Build Your Profile by Nursing Subspecialty Nursing has many sub-specialties. Hinting at a future direction in your application makes your profile stronger. Critical Care and Emergency Nursing EMT-B certification and volunteer ambulance work Emergency department teen volunteer roles where available HOSA emergency-medicine events Pediatric Nursing Children's hospital teen volunteer programs Camp counselor roles, especially at medical or special-needs camps Tutoring or mentoring younger children consistently Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing Mental Health First Aid certification Peer support program leadership at your school Crisis line volunteering once age-eligible Public Health Nursing Vaccine clinic volunteering Community health fair support Health-education content creation (school newspaper column, social media) Your 4-Year Pre-Nursing Roadmap Freshman Year Join HOSA — start one if your school does not have a chapter Take honors biology and prepare for AP Biology Begin volunteering at a hospital, hospice, or nursing home Track everything in the Activities Tracker Sophomore Year Take AP Biology Earn CPR/BLS, First Aid, and Stop the Bleed certifications Compete in HOSA at the regional or state level Apply to summer programs (SMYSP, Penn Medicine Summer Mentorship, hospital teen volunteer programs) Junior Year Take AP Chemistry and consider Anatomy/Physiology if offered Complete CNA certification (typically the summer after junior year) Earn Mental Health First Aid certification Lead your HOSA chapter or hospital volunteer cohort Aim for HOSA national qualification Senior Year Work paid CNA shifts at a nursing home, hospital, or rehab center Optional: Pursue EMT-B certification Mentor underclassmen in HOSA and clinical volunteering Connect your activities into a coherent narrative for application essays Medical Scribing: Paid Clinical Exposure Medical scribing is one of the most undervalued pre-nursing opportunities. Scribes work alongside physicians, documenting patient encounters in real time. Companies like ScribeAmerica hire high school graduates and sometimes seniors with relevant training. Even a few months of scribing provides: Sustained, intimate exposure to clinical decision-making Direct relationships with physicians who can write recommendation letters Paid work that proves you can handle a real medical environment Vocabulary and pattern recognition that gives you an enormous head start in nursing school Browse other clinical opportunities in our Internships directory. What the Work Actually Looks Like One of the most common reasons students switch out of nursing in college is that the work itself was different from what they expected. Building a realistic picture before you apply makes you a stronger applicant and a happier nurse. The realities to understand: Shifts are long and physical — Most hospital nurses work 12-hour shifts on their feet. You will be lifting patients, walking miles per shift, and skipping meals when units are busy. Volunteer for an evening or weekend shift if your hospital allows it to feel the pace. You will see hard things — Death, abuse, addiction, and trauma are routine in many nursing settings. Hospice volunteering and emergency-department teen volunteering are the two best ways to test whether you can sustain emotional engagement with hard work. Charting is half the job — Modern nurses spend 30 to 40 percent of their time documenting in electronic health records. Comfort with detailed, careful written work matters as much as bedside skills. Patients are not always grateful — Pain, fear, and dementia produce difficult interactions. Resilience and the ability to depersonalize hard moments are central professional skills. The team matters more than the patient interaction — Nurses spend most of their day coordinating with doctors, pharmacists, social workers, and other nurses. Good communication and respect across hierarchies is essential. Specialties differ enormously — Pediatric oncology nursing and emergency department nursing are almost different jobs. Use shadowing and volunteering to expose yourself to several specialties before applying. The job market is strong — Nursing shortage is real and projected to continue. Pay is competitive in most regions, and geographic flexibility is essentially unlimited. Strong applicants reference these realities in their application essays. Writing about a specific moment from hospice or hospital volunteering — and what it taught you about the work — is more compelling than abstract statements about wanting to help people. Direct Admit vs Pre-Nursing: Why It Matters Some BSN programs admit students directly into the nursing major as freshmen (Penn, Duke, Michigan, NYU, Villanova, and others). Others admit you to the university and require a separate competitive application to the nursing program after one or two years of pre-nursing coursework (many large state schools work this way). Direct-admit programs are usually significantly more competitive at the high school application stage but eliminate the risk of being denied entry to the nursing major after two years of college work. If you are committed to nursing, applying to direct-admit programs is the most secure path. Your high school extracurricular profile matters most for these applications. Putting It All Together Strong nursing applications combine three things: documented clinical exposure (HOSA, hospital volunteering, CNA work), real science engagement (strong AP Biology and AP Chemistry plus health-sciences clubs or research), and explicit reflection on what nursing actually is. Direct-admit BSN programs are competitive — students who hit all three categories with depth (not just one of each) have the strongest profiles. Find HOSA, summer health programs, and clinical opportunities in our Summer Programs directory and Internships directory, and use the Application Tracker to plan certifications, volunteer hours, and direct-admit application deadlines across your high school years. Frequently Asked Questions Do I need to be CNA-certified to get into a top BSN program? No, but it significantly strengthens your application. CNA work demonstrates the kind of sustained clinical commitment that admissions committees look for, and the paid work itself often produces strong recommendation letters. Is shadowing a nurse better than shadowing a doctor? Yes, if you can arrange it. Nursing programs want to know that you understand specifically what nurses do — which is different from what doctors do. Shadowing nurses (especially in different settings: hospital, clinic, community) is more relevant than physician shadowing for nursing applications. How important is HOSA for nursing admissions? HOSA is the single most relevant club. It is not strictly required, but its events, conferences, and competitive structure are designed for exactly the kind of student who is preparing for nursing or other health careers. Are there summer programs specifically for nursing? Most summer programs are broader health-sciences focused. Nursing-specific summer programs at the high school level are less common, but broader health-sciences programs (SMYSP, Penn Medicine Summer Mentorship, hospital-based teen volunteer and CNA-track programs) all serve future nurses well. Can I get into nursing school without much science extracurriculars? It is harder. Nursing programs want to see that you can handle the heavy science load — which means strong AP Biology and AP Chemistry grades plus some demonstrated science engagement (HOSA, science fair, biology research). Without that, your application has a major gap.Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be CNA-certified to get into a top BSN program?
No, but it significantly strengthens your application. CNA work demonstrates sustained clinical commitment that admissions committees look for, and the paid work itself often produces strong recommendation letters.
Is shadowing a nurse better than shadowing a doctor?
Yes, if you can arrange it. Nursing programs want to know you understand specifically what nurses do, which is different from what doctors do. Shadowing nurses in different settings is more relevant for nursing applications.
How important is HOSA for nursing admissions?
HOSA is the single most relevant club. It is not strictly required, but its events, conferences, and competitive structure are designed for exactly the kind of student preparing for nursing or other health careers.
Are there summer programs specifically for nursing?
Most summer programs are broader health-sciences focused. Nursing-specific summer programs at the high school level are less common, but broader programs like SMYSP, Penn Medicine Summer Mentorship, and hospital-based teen volunteer or CNA-track programs all serve future nurses well.
Can I get into nursing school without much science extracurriculars?
It is harder. Nursing programs want to see that you can handle the heavy science load, which means strong AP Biology and AP Chemistry grades plus demonstrated science engagement. Without that, your application has a major gap.