After more than a quarter-century in school, Hanna Stevens PHD '03 LAS sees the finish line.

As part of the UI Medical Scholars program, which enables students to work toward medical and doctoral degrees simultaneously, Stevens is set to become a doctor twice over. She already received her doctorate in neuroscience. Now all she needs is her medical degree, due to arrive this month. And, oh, one more thing: a job.

"You spend so much time preparing yourself for a career," she said. "I really am looking for an academic career in the end." In February, Stevens waited in that tense limbo; she'd turned in her applications for residencies in psychiatry but hadn't heard back yet from universities, including her first choice, Yale.

A little reassurance can't hurt.

Hanna Stevens, meet Benjamin Levi AM '92 LAS, PHD '94 ED, MD '95. Currently a clinical doctor, researcher and assistant professor, he talked with Stevens by phone from the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center's College of Medicine at Penn State University.

Levi has a master's degree in philosophy, a doctorate in educational policy and a medical degree. Nine years ago, he was preparing to leave Urbana as well.

Having been in Stevens' shoes, Levi takes this opportunity to speak to her feelings about balancing the workload, evaluating job prospects and reaping the long-term personal and professional benefits of getting dual advanced degrees.

Those dual degrees mean that Medical Scholars complete all the requirements of a standard medical degree as well as the requisites of a doctorate in a research or liberal arts field. It also means students need to learn to mentally switch gears; they may go from memorizing human anatomy to theorizing on the life of novelist Jane Austen and back to anatomy in the same day.

"Graduate school is a very different approach from medicine," Levi said. "You really have to be very much driven and disciplined." He said medical school helped him learn to sift through and retain information quickly, while doctoral studies helped teach him patience and the perseverance to study details and work through problems, true assets when it comes to helping patients.

Helping both patients and students is important to Stevens as well. She's interested in Yale because "it seems very committed to mentoring," she said.

"Do you think that mentoring is a critical component?" she asked Levi.

"I think it is," he replied.

As the two talk, they realize how many experiences they've shared. They swap stories of UI professors and staff, and Stevens tells Levi her feeling that in the department, she is viewed not as a product but as a person still developing her skills.

Levi agrees, saying the program helped him grow as a doctor, teacher and researcher. It also enabled him to make connections in his fields that continue to be relevant. He advises Stevens to develop and hold on to her relationships with her UI peers. The people he's studied with are not only old friends but new experts to tap for advice in wide-ranging areas.

As Levi knows and Stevens is finding out, the benefits of a decade of study in Urbana extend far beyond that decade. Said Levi, "I really think of [the UI College of Medicine's Medical Scholars program] as home in certain ways," Levi said.

For Stevens, there's no place like it. As a UI Medical Scholar, she said, "I definitely didn't feel like I was putting my life on hold." In March, Stevens found out that her work paid off. Come fall, she'll be at Yale.

Katie Wilhelm knows how to pack a schedule.

The music education major still has a few classes and a student teaching stint before she graduates. In addition to her daily piano practices, she's also currently rehearsing in two plays, waitressing at TGI Friday's and serving on the board of directors of the Champaign chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Those interests have left her with so many possible career avenues, she's not sure which to follow. "Everything that I do are things I want to be doing," said Wilhelm.

That's why she's glad to see behind-the-scenes the job of Gail Kalver '70 FAA, executive director of Hubbard Street Dance Company in Chicago, an internationally known contemporary dance troupe.

As dancers whiz by and staff pop in and out of the office with questions, Wilhelm sits in Kalver's office as the two talk arts administration — and the infinite benefits of datebooks.

Katie Wilhelm, left, and Gail Kalver attend a rehearsal for the Hubbard Street Dance Company's upcoming show.

"She's in the same boat I was in," said Kalver of Wilhelm's many activities. While Kalver was at the U of I getting her degree in music, she was also setting up musical groups to play in and spending hours practicing her clarinet. The activities left her at graduation with a passion for playing, but not a steady job.

"I started by making my own work," she said, as Wilhelm listened intently. Coordinating with local schools, Kalver set up, promoted and organized a small arts program for children. Her success at multitasking led to contracts with cultural organizations to put together events. "People started noticing me kind of running around and organizing things," she said. "I started becoming an administrator without even realizing it."

But the director of the Ravinia Festival did. He hired Kalver as an assistant for the Chicago-area summer arts festival, giving her more and more responsibility as the job progressed. She went on to oversee Ravinia's dance program. A few years later, when Hubbard Street was looking for an administrator, Kalver got the call.

Leaving Kalver's office, the two walk upstairs to watch the main company rehearse for its new show, slated to open the next week. Transfixed and quiet, Wilhelm watches the lithe performers, her face aglow with the music and energy in the room. When the two get their pictures taken for Illinois Alumni, the photographer has to remind Wilhelm to look at the camera instead of the dancers. She smiles sheepishly but can't stop staring.

That's fine with Kalver. From booking venues to maintaining contacts to overseeing programming, in her 20 years with Hubbard Street Kalver has done nearly every administrative job possible to ensure that when the dancers are onstage, the audience feels just as Wilhelm does now.

If Wilhelm wants to get to that point, Kalver advises her to face her tasks with confidence and tenacity. "I had a great four years [at the U of I]. I had a terrific music background," Kalver said. However, she said, "I'm not sure my degree ever got me my job. I think it was my initiative."

Kalver suggested demonstrating that initiative even before graduation by doing an internship. By providing Wilhelm with on-the-job experience, an internship would help her determine her first step after graduation. "I wouldn't worry too much about making a career decision," Kalver said. "I'm not sure you can possibly know until you get going."

Wilhelm has already gotten her jump-start. She's currently applying for administrative and educational internships at theater companies, preparing for her first steps outside the hallowed halls. In the meantime, said Kalver, not to worry.

"One thing kind of leads to another," she said. "If you're good, it will happen for you."

Photo of Stevens: L Brian Stauffer photo.

Photo of Levi: courtesy of Benjamin Levi.

Photo of Wilhelm and Kalver: by Roberta Dupuis-Devlin/UIC Photographic Services.