On the track, Julia Coric strives to shave fractions of a second off the clock. Away from it, the WashU senior has taken time to pursue her interests ranging from chemistry and biomedical research to writing, mentoring young runners, and serving the St. Louis community.

Coric, a chemistry major and member of the varsity track team, competes in the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter sprints and runs on relay teams. While the demands of training have meant making sacrifices throughout college, track has also taught her discipline, built her confidence, and given her a close-knit community at WashU.

“You could say I'm missing out on the typical college experience because so much of my time is spent training and competing," she said. "But I feel like I've been gifted a completely unique college experience instead. Through track, I've found a family, traveled across the country, and been part of something much bigger than myself."

With practices and competitions filling every other day of the week, Sundays remind Coric why she fell in love with running in the first place. For nearly two years, she has spent them with the Bear Cubs Running Team, a program that pairs WashU students with neurodivergent children. Coric runs alongside Benji, the same young athlete she has been paired with since joining the program. “I’ve probably learned more from him than he has from me,” Coric said. “Seeing him every Sunday has become one of my favorite parts of the week.”

That combination of achievement and service extends beyond the track. In the classroom, Coric has gravitated toward courses that show her how science connects to medicine and the lives of patients.

She was particularly inspired by bioorganic chemistry with Tim Wencewicz, professor of chemistry. “He taught us about the pharmacology of antibiotics, their different mechanisms of action, and why the search for new antibiotics is so important,” she said. “We weren’t just drilling formulas and reactions. I felt like I was learning chemistry in the real world.”

Wencewicz recalled Coric as a student who found a sense of purpose in a challenging course. “Students can get lost in the details of science courses,” he said. “Julia developed a mastery of interdisciplinary life sciences.”

Coric is now a teaching assistant in General Biochemistry I, taught by Courtney Reichhardt, assistant professor of chemistry, and Joe Jez, the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Biology. “Understanding life at the molecular level requires blending insights from biology and chemistry,” Jez said. “It’s not easy to think and work across disciplines, but Julia does this effortlessly.” 

Coric has also taken advantage of opportunities well outside her major. A food writing workshop taught by Kasey Grady, a senior lecturer in college writing, became an unexpected favorite of her college career.

“I absolutely fell in love with that class,” Coric said. “She really let us take the reins with our writing, and because it was such a small class, we all became really close. I even wrote one essay in the format of an FBI report. I’m not usually a humanities person, but it ended up being one of the best courses I’ve taken at WashU.”

Coric’s interest in science and medicine has also led her to pursue research in multiple labs. Before her junior year, she spent the summer studying cell differentiation in the mammalian gut through the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation’s summer internship program. “I learned so much that summer, and the experience really opened the door to my love for research,” she said. “Afterward, I wanted to expand into an area that connected with my growing interest in orthopedics. Ultimately, I want to be in a place where research and clinical care intersect in tangible ways.”

Her growing interest in orthopedics, a field that has given the longtime runner a new way to think about the body and its mechanics, led Coric to the Knights Lab at WashU Medicine, where she studies the cellular dynamics of osteoarthritis. In summer 2026, she continued this work funded through the Summer Undergraduate Research Guided Experience, or SURGE.

Coric has also sought opportunities to experience health care beyond the laboratory. During summers at home in Connecticut, she volunteered in the pediatric unit at Yale New Haven Hospital, organizing games and crafts for children and spending time with their families. In St. Louis, Coric, who minors in Spanish, interacts with patients navigating health care as a medical scribe at Casa de Salud, a clinic serving St. Louis’s underserved communities.

“What has really drawn me to these experiences is the people,” Coric said. “At Yale, I got to know not only the kids, but their families and how much an illness affects everyone around them. At Casa, I’ve been able to use my Spanish, learn from physicians, and help make care more accessible to people in my own community. Those relationships are what keep pulling me toward medicine.”

Her commitment to science has also earned national recognition. In 2026, Coric was named an Astronaut Scholar, an honor awarded to high-achieving college students pursuing STEM research. The scholarship provides up to $15,000 in support. Coric was invited to join other scholars at the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s Innovators Gala in Houston in August, but the celebration happened to coincide with another important date on her calendar: the Medical College Admission Test.

“I’m planning to take a gap year after graduating, and I hope to spend that time abroad continuing to do research before going to medical school,” she said. “I’d love to stay at WashU for medical school, but we’ll see how it works out.”

Coric feels right at home at WashU, but it wasn’t always an obvious landing place. As a high school student, she didn’t have a dream college in mind. She knew she wanted a strong academic program, so she applied broadly.

“I ended up casting a wide net and applying to 16 universities,” she said. “It finally came down to WashU and a couple of other options.”

A visit to campus helped make the decision: “I walked around with my parents, and people just stopped to talk with me,” she said. “There are a lot of smart people at schools everywhere, but at WashU it feels like people truly care about your success. I feel incredibly lucky that this was the school I ended up at.”

Several years later, Coric has built the kind of undergraduate experience she was looking for — one that has allowed her to move among research, medicine, service, athletics, and even the occasional writing workshop. As graduation approaches, those experiences are beginning to point in the same direction. Coric hopes to continue building a life that leaves room for the many passions she discovered in St. Louis, while bringing her love of science and research closer to patient care and service to others.

If her time at WashU is any indication, she’ll quickly reach her next goals, whatever and wherever they are.