Decision to study in Poland
My decision to come to Poznan for medical school was something I and my family gave much thought to. I was living in Chicago with my family; we moved there when my twin sister and I were ten, and by high school we both knew what we wanted to do; I wanted to be a doctor and she wanted to be a dentist.
I grew up in New York state after emigrating from Poland with my family as a little girl. Yet throughout my young adulthood, something always propelled me towards Poland. After graduating from Cornell University, and knowing I wanted to go to medical school in Europe, I applied to PUMS.
1. What made you choose a Polish university? Leonard Wilk (then my boyfriend, now my husband) is Polish and we went there together.
I graduated from PUMS in 2002. After my graduation I did a residency in Pediatrics at University of Illinois in Chicago and then a fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. I am an assistant professor in adolescent medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee currently. When I look out at you, I am reminded of my journey that brought me to where I am today. It started at PUMS.
Pediatric Healthcare Associates, Connecticut
When I decided to pursue my medical degree (right about my 23rd birthday), I soon realized that all the application deadlines for medical schools in the US for that year had long passed. But interestingly enough one of my professors made me aware of a possibility of studying medicine in English and for less money in a great country, Poland, which is where I had left from for America 10 years before. Even though I thought about waiting another year to make myself eligible for a med school in the US I decided to test the waters and apply to a few Polish schools at once. Soon I learned that I was accepted into PUMS.
A world famous Polish surgeon running Plastic Surgery Research at Clevland Clinic in Ohio, she graduated from Poznan Univerity of Medical Sciences in 1974, receiving her MD. She furthered her education and in 1985 received her Ph.D. in microsurgery and then in 1992 her „habilitation” in medical sciences. She was awarded the title of professor by President Lech Kaczyński.
When I was applying to medical schools, my future father in-law brought me an application for PUMS. He explained to me that this was a prestigious medical school in Poland that was starting a program for English-speaking students. I applied, with the hopes of learning some Polish and seeing the country of my fiancé Paul’s childhood. To my delight (and fear), I was accepted into the inaugural class. Paul and I made the journey across the ocean a few months later. My student identification number was 0001.
