Kaylee Rajek and Jacqueline (Jackie) Wallin are graduating seniors who have received the 2025 Paul R. Ebling Pre-Medicine Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to aspiring physicians committed to attend UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) in the upcoming fall semester. Both Kaylee and Jackie are planning to attend SMPH this fall, with the goal of actualizing their lifelong dreams of being a doctor.
Kaylee Rajek | B.S. in Biology, College of Letters & Science | Weston, Wisconsin
Kaylee Rajek’s birthplace of Merrill, Wisconsin, helped inspire her goal to be a physician and a proponent of health literacy. “In rural areas, having children young perpetuates a cycle of poverty, ensuring that subsequent generations are more likely to endure the same challenges of limited resources and substandard education as their parents.... I am determined to use my future career to better the life experiences of young women like me in rural communities,” Kaylee writes.
Kaylee advocates for others as the president of Advocates for Rare Diseases, a student organization on campus, and has also volunteered for the Crisis Text Line, American Family Children’s Hospital, Specialty Care Free Clinic, and ARTS for ALL. She has worked as a CNA in a rural senior rehabilitation center, where she experienced firsthand the importance of being part of a collaborative and multidisciplinary care team.
As a biology major, Kaylee has participated in research in the Wright Lab in the biochemistry department with Professor Elizabeth Wright and received a Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship for her work on DNA.
In addition to academics, Kaylee competes in track and field meets with the Wisconsin Track Club. She took second in the triple jump and third in the high jump at the national indoor club meet.
Jacqueline (Jackie) Wallin | B.S. in Biology and Pharmacology & Toxicology, School of Pharmacy | Ladysmith, Wisconsin
Jackie Wallin is a biology and pharmacology & toxicology major from Ladysmith, Wisconsin, where she worked as a CNA. While working in this role, she was repeatedly asked, “Are you going to become a nurse?” Jackie overcame her coworkers’ attempts to dissuade her from her goal of becoming a physician. After meeting with a female physician, “I realized [the] perception of leadership roles, particularly in healthcare, was limited.... Leadership roles like physicians appeared [to be] reserved for men.”
Jackie has conducted research on prostate cancer in the Lang Lab in UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health with Dr. Joshua Lang. She received a Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowship and shared her research on tumors at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Service is important to Jackie. She is an executive board member of the Wisconsin Women Pre-Med Association and is involved in Advocates for Alzheimer’s, the PharmTox Class Council, and helped her sorority raise more than $70,000 for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. She also volunteers at an assisted living facility and Share the Health, a free gynecology clinic.
As a future female physician and role model, Jackie hopes that she will inspire young girls. “One day,” she says, “I will see an ambitious young girl and ask, ‘Are you going to become a doctor?’”
The scholarship committee believes strongly that both of these UW–Madison graduates will go on to make great physicians in the future, supporting rural and urban communities in Wisconsin and beyond.
The College of Letters & Science would like to thank the Ebling Family for making this gift possible, SMPH’s Admissions Office for their collaboration, and the members of this year’s Paul R. Ebling Scholarship Committee for their commitment to supporting pre-medical students at UW–Madison.