Maine East alumnus Philip Papaioannou is making calls this summer, but not the kind he’s used to making when he’s behind the plate for the Denison baseball team. The 21-year-old math major is spending his summer as a research assistant with the Hospitalist Project at the University of Chicago Medicine.
“We follow up with (patients) a month after their stay to see how they’re doing and what they thought of the whole process at the hospital,” Papaioannou said. “It’s something doctors can use to review themselves, how they did, what things can be improved. It’s all about improving the quality of care at the hospital.”
Working alongside 11 full-time interns and 65 part-time volunteers, Papaioannou is an unpaid intern who spends 12 hours a week helping with the study, which is in its 18th year. Now at the halfway point of his summer position, the Morton Grove resident will begin work with patients on the hospital floor.
“He’s always happy to help out on other projects,” said Elle Moore, who jointly manages the Hospitalist Project. “He comes in ready to pick up where he left off, which is sort of rare in research assistants. Each day you kind of have to tell them what to do and delegate certain things, but he just hits the ground running.”
An internship last summer turned him off from the world of business, and the pursuit of an economics degree, and led him to a career pivot.
“I interned last summer at a small investing group,” Papaioannou said. “I hated it. I didn’t like the business environment. It didn’t fit my personality. I wanted to do something where I could make a meaningful impact. I took a risk and changed to the pre-med track and I’ve enjoyed every second of it.”
Papaioannou, whose last name is pronounced Pah-pee-ah-noo, feels a need to catch up to his colleagues because of the recent career move. Other students, he said, have more classes, volunteer hours and hospital hours under their belts.
Along with serving as a research assistant, Papaioannou is spending his summer taking two physics courses at Northeastern Illinois, delivering food to people in need in Niles on Friday mornings as a volunteer with Catholic Charities and volunteering weekend mornings at Habitat For Humanity ReStore Chicago. The store sells donated goods and reinvests the money in building homes for the homeless. The senior-to-be is doing all this while getting in shape for his final baseball season at Denison, a Division III program in Granville, Ohio.
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He’s had a lot on his plate this summer, figuratively and literally.
“I’m trying to get to about 190 pounds for baseball season,” he said.
Papaioannou entered the summer at 165 pounds, but has added 15 by consuming 3,000-4,000 calories a day and working out four to five times a week. Two days are dedicated to legs, mainly squats. Light days see high reps of 225 pounds, while heavy days have lower reps of 285-300 pounds. Another two days are dedicated to dumbbell bench, with light days consisting of 75-80 pound dumbbells of high reps and heavy days cranked to 85 pounds. Saturdays are all cardio.
Papaioannou specifically wanted to strengthen his core this summer, along with muscles used for explosive movement, which is something Tim Heublein, a baseball instructor who has worked with Papaioannou the past four years, praised.
“(He’s) more dedicated to the small things than most players tend to be,” Heublein said. “He understands the importance of core strength.”
Heublein is working on mechanical stuff with Papaioannou, specifically footwork and body positioning, so he can succeed both with the bat and glove.
“We’re working on getting his lower half into the proper positioning (on offense and defense) so his upper half can be successful,” Heublein said. “A lot of things most people would consider very tedious, are what he works really hard at.”
But blocking a slider in the dirt hasn’t been Papaioannou’s biggest concern this summer. Neither has the balancing act of a full schedule.
“Eating,” he said. “It’s hard to find time to sit down and have a meal for half an hour.”
Almonds and Subway footlong sandwiches have become his best friends this summer.
And while the endgame for Papaioannou is specializing in orthopedics, his biggest goal in the near future is on the diamond.
In 29 at-bats last season, Papaioannou batted .310 with a .429 on-base percentage. Papaioannou, who started seven games and appeared in a total of 18, also scored five runs and drove in six.
Denison recorded its third-highest win total (27) in program history in 2016 and finished first in the division. But the Big Red’s season ended one game short of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament final.
“Denison has never got a national bid into the big tournament and never won the conference tournament. … That’s the goal,” Papaioannou said. “Then we would graduate and I’d still be playing baseball after graduation, which sounds awesome to me.”
Lee Bosch is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press