“The greatest experiences I have had during medical school were meeting and interacting with so many great people,” says Katie Baluk ’06. “My classmates were like family to me.” In her second year on the Peoria campus of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, she joined Resonance, a college-sponsored acappella choir, to meet others and find an outlet for her musical side. Baluk says the singing group gave her a break from her studies and an opportunity to perform at a variety of enjoyable events.
Baluk says she loved studying on the Peoria campus because of its location between Chicago and St. Louis, which provided her with a wider variety of cases than usual. “I think the Peoria location made our experience unique,” she says. She also appreciated the faculty, saying they generously shared their years of experience with students and taught her “how to think like a physician.”
A native of Illinois, Baluk plans to remain close to her family and friends during her family practice residency at MacNeal Memorial Hospital in Berwyn, Illinois.