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Purpose As the need for effective physician leaders caring for underserved populations grows, it is important to initiate interventions for medical professionals early in their education. Board experience on a student-run free clinic serving vulnerable populations within the community has the potential to educate medical students in a hands-on environment. This paper aims to determine if serving as a leader of a student-run free clinic impacts leadership skills and future leadership goals of medical students. Design/methodology/approach Medical students leading a student-run free clinic completed an anonymous electronic survey to determine how this experience affected their teamwork skills, interprofessional leadership skills and future leadership career goals. The survey consisted of 12 items to which students responded with how closely they agreed via a five-point Likert scale with 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. Descriptive statistics are reported. Findings From the 46 students (42.2% response rate) responding to the survey, 95.45% had a previous leadership experience and 89.2% expressed previous interest in a leadership position. Students scored on average 4.36 (out of 5) for improvement in teamwork skills, 4.34 (out of 5) for improvement in interprofessional skills and 3.88 (out of 5) for impact on future leadership career goals. Originality/value This study suggests that service on a student-run free clinic improves teamwork and interprofessional leadership skills as well as future leadership plans of medical students in an underserved vulnerable population environment. Other institutions could use student-run free clinics for early development of effective leaders in medical health care for the vulnerable population.