Numbers-wise, you have a good shot at some schools in Illinois, provided your written skills are generally better than represented in your first post. Be aware that many of the applicants you'll be competing with list hundreds of hours of exposure to patients via volunteering, working, and shadowing on their AMCAS application, so "a liitle bit of volunteering" won't be sufficient to impress adcomms that you have a real idea of what you are getting yourself into when you apply for admission. One semester of research will be enough for some Illinois schools, but an academic year would be better. The intensity of your current work experience will look good as it shows you can carry a heavy load and still do reasonably well in school. The higher you can get your GPA, the better, as it is currently below the mean of accepted students (3.6), but you still have all this year to bring that up. You have plenty of time to get your Letters of Reference lined up; it's good you're already thinking about those. Generally, you'll need one from your research coordinator, 2 science profs, and one non-science. If the research is in bio or chem, it can count toward science.
