By Tiffany Bronk, Health Science Relations
Julia Wymore enjoys studying medicine. She also enjoys playing the violin, studying Russian and German, traveling, and trying new things. She knows exactly what she likes, but finding ways to integrate all her interests proves to be a challenge.
" There’s a lot out there, and I want to find it," Wymore, a first-year medical student, said. "I feel like there is so much left to know and learn."
One of her biggest endeavors has been the organization of a medical student strings group called Stringendo medicosum. Wymore began playing the violin when she was nine years old, and upon entering the Carver College of Medicine she realized she missed performing. She also realized there was a medical student singing group, and a marching band.
" I thought, why not strings?" she said.
Stringendo medicosum came together amidst a web of contacts and e-mails. With the help of Liz King, fellow first-year student, Wymore worked to find other medical students who weren’t ready to quit performing just because they were in medical school. The group has eight core members, she said, with a number of others attending the weekly rehearsals when their schedules allow.
" The hardest part can be finding the time to get together," she said. "Although rehearsal actually turns out to be a big stress reliever for most of us."
Wymore, a Cedar Rapids native, said she finds the group to be really enthusiastic. It is especially rewarding, she said, to share music with her fellow students because it gives them a different perspective than they have through their shared classes everyday.
" It’s really neat to get together at the end of the day and connect through music," she said.
Last November, the group performed the prelude to classical pianist and psychiatrist Richard Kogan’s concert. They have also hosted lunch-hour performances in the MERF atrium. The group hopes to perform a lunch hour concert at UI Hospitals and Clinics in the near future and is currently focusing on preparing for their spring concert.
Wymore said the group plays a variety of pieces. They are currently working on pieces by Mozart and Bach, as well as Tchaikovsky’s "Souvenir de Florence."
The ongoing struggle to obtain balance with music, medicine, and other interests keeps things in perspective, Wymore said. Continually learning new things and exploring new options helps her remember that aside from medical school, "there are other things in life that are really important," she said.
Wymore will spend the upcoming summer in Russia completing a clinical internship under the instruction of Russian native Andrew Lobuznov, adjunct assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Iowa. She will spend four weeks in St. Petersburg, and then has plans to travel for the rest of the summer.
This trip marks Wymore’s third to Russia. As an undergraduate biology and Russian major at Luther College, she spent a semester studying in St. Petersburg in the fall of 2001, and completed an internship in cardiac surgery in Moscow during the spring of 2003.
Studying in Russia, she said, has helped her to explore her interest in global medicine. Her experiences abroad and during her first year of medical school have also helped her explore new ways to integrate her interests in the arts and humanities with medicine, an experience she calls "humbling."
" It’s inspiring to see physician faculty members who have maintained such broad interests, but it can be so difficult to find the time to gel everything together," Wymore said. "I wish there was more time in the day. It can be very frustrating, but it’s also very fun."
She said she continually strives to find ways to integrate her varied interests with her medical education. She is thankful that the college of medicine encourages students to explore and integrate non-medical interests such as sports, music and humanities into their daily schedules.
" I love it all, and I am happy that I have the opportunity here at Iowa to keep doing the things I love besides medicine ," she said. "It gives me a good feeling."