About

The Sports Medicine Institute is one of 25 subject-specific one-week institutes offered through Wake Forest University's Summer Immersion Program, and it stands out within that suite for the clinical depth of its hands-on experiences. Set on WFU's Reynolda Campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and extending into Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the program runs Sunday through Friday — check-in Sunday afternoon, checkout Friday at noon — and is fully residential, with students housed in WFU dorms under 24-hour staff supervision.

The academic leaders are two practicing orthopaedic surgeons from Wake Forest's medical faculty. Dr. Nicholas Trasolini is a board-eligible orthopaedic sports medicine specialist and team physician for Wake Forest University Football, with fellowship training at Rush University Medical Center and prior service as assistant team physician for the Chicago White Sox. Dr. Gary Poehling joined Wake Forest's faculty in 1976 and chaired the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery for decades; he trained in Japan under one of the first arthroscopists in the world and went on to help pioneer arthroscopic technique in the United States, serving as Editor in Chief of Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery. Together they lead a program staffed by orthopaedic surgeons, physical therapists, physician assistants, and athletic trainers across the week's sessions.

The curriculum covers concussions, knee and shoulder injuries, pediatric sports medicine, athletic training, physical therapy, and emerging areas including biologics and regenerative medicine in sports contexts. What distinguishes this program within its tier is the hands-on experience list: students participate in a cadaveric surgical anatomy lab dissecting knee and shoulder anatomy, rotate through orthopaedic skills labs in a mock operating room at the hospital, practice splinting, casting, and ankle taping, complete a suturing lab, and visit the Wake Forest Pitching Biomechanics Lab — a facility used by working professional athletes. Days include travel to the medical center, panel discussions with career professionals including physician assistants, and structured evening activities on campus. A typical day runs from 8am through 10:30pm lights-out.

Admission is rolling and open to all current high school students in grades 9 through 12, domestic and international, with no GPA cutoff or prerequisites. The application requires two essays, one teacher or counselor recommendation, and a $60 fee; transcripts are not required. Tuition is $3,500 for the week, inclusive of housing, meals, and all programming. Both 2026 sessions — the week of June 21 and the week of July 12 — have implemented waitlists; students applying for future cycles should do so early, as popular institutes fill in December and January. Need-based aid funding for 2026 has been exhausted; prospective applicants should apply in November to access scholarship consideration in future years.

Like all WFU Summer Immersion institutes, this program carries no college credit and awards a Certificate of Completion rather than a transcript. It is open enrollment, not selective, and does not provide the individual mentorship or research output of a competitive university program. What it does provide — for a student seriously considering sports medicine, orthopaedics, or athletic training as a career path — is an unusually clinical week: real surgeons, real anatomy labs, and access to a professional-grade biomechanics facility. For that specific student, it is one of the more substantive one-week options in the field.