J. Michael Rodriguez 21

SIU School of Medicine student Matt McKay has more than luggage to take to Springfield in June after his first year of medical school in Carbondale.

He has a family.

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McKay, 30, of Moline, has been married since June 1996 and has a 7-month-old daughter.

I moved a lot when I was young, and I really don’t want that for her (his daughter), McKay said. I don’t dread moving. It’s good in a way that you’re seeing different parts of the state and the country.

The School of Medicine requires students to attend classes their first year in Carbondale, while the last three years are spent in Springfield.

The first year of the program is for students to take advantage of the basic science faculty and facilities. The next three years are for students to use the resources of the full-time and community faculty and two large community hospitals:Memorial Medical Center and St. John’s Hospital in Springfield.

I chose SIUC because I liked that it was clinically oriented a lot of clinical work that requires us to follow around doctors, McKay said.

McKay received his emergency medical technician certificate in 1991. He became a paramedic in 1993, the same year he began his undergraduate work at SIUC.

McKay and his wife, Megan, moved from Moline to Carbondale in August.

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I didn’t mind coming down here with him, Megan McKay said. I’m looking forward to moving to Springfield because it is closer to home, and I look forward to staying in the same spot for three years.

McKay says that this is not their only move in the near future.

We’re in a process where we have to move all of the time, he said.

When McKay finishes medical school, he will serve a four-year residency, which may cause him to move away from Springfield. McKay also applied for a scholarship through the Air Force and will serve in the military for four years after his residency is complete.

Like McKay, third-year medical student Elaine Fisher had to move her children when she began her second year of medical school in Springfield.

Fisher, 37, has two daughters, ages 13 and 15, who moved with her.

If it were a family decision, I wouldn’t be here, Fisher said. My daughters were supportive that I wanted to be a doctor, but they didn’t like the fact that they had to leave their friends and their small school.

Yet, I did bring them down during spring break of last year to show them the schools and how some aspects were very similar.

Holly Fisher, Elaine’s 15-year-old daughter, said the transition was difficult at first but was eventually an easy one.

At first it was very hard leaving all of my friends here, she said. I consider myself a very friendly person, so once I went to school, it was very easy.

Fisher began medical school in 1995 after receiving her bachelor’s degree from McKendree College in Lebanon.

Initially I was interested in (the SIU School of Medicine) because my family is from Southern Illinois, she said. I then learned that the school is very student-oriented.

Fisher said a positive to the two campuses is the small-city, big-city experience.

I figured it would be a growing experience, Fisher said. In Carbondale I was away from the bigger city and was still exposed to updated equipment. It also allowed me to bond well with my classmates.

In Springfield, I’m able to work with the same updated equipment in a bigger city where it is open to more patients.

Fisher plans to return to Southern Illinois because of scholarship regulations by the Illinois Department of Public Health, which states she must work in an under-served area in Illinois.

Both McKay and Fisher agree that classes being all at one place would be more convenient for their families.

I would rather they all be in Springfield because that makes it closer to my family as well as my wife’s, McKay said. It would have been easier to stay in one spot. You kind of have to play by the rules.

And while McKay prefers Springfield, Fisher would opt for Carbondale.

Carbondale would have been a nice place to stay in for my daughters, Fisher said. But I had to make this move now.

McKay said that despite having a family, he accepts the move to Springfield.

It’s a big mess logistically, he said. But it’s built in that I have to move. It’s expected.