Another Match Day at Baylor College of Medicine is in the books, and students, faculty and staff couldn’t be more excited about the day’s celebrations.
Match Day is the culmination of the annual National Resident Matching Program, which pairs fourth-year medical students with residency programs throughout the nation. Festivities were held Friday, March 18, in the courtyard at Baylor.
Dr. Paul Klotman, president, CEO and executive dean congratulated the students and their families and gave some words of advice.
“It’s called ‘Match Day’ for a reason. It’s not called choice day,” he said. “The thing about a match is that it requires not only your choice, but the choice of the other institution that you’re applying to. Whatever choice you get, on the other side there’s going to be a program that is absolutely ecstatic that you are joining them. And because of that, it will be a great match.”
Dr. Alicia Monroe, provost and senior vice president of academic and faculty affairs at Baylor, asked for a round of applause for those in the audience, including parents, loved ones and significant others who were the support system for the medical students during their medical school career.
“You take part of the essence of Baylor College of Medicine with you wherever you go. We ask as you go into dark places – into sick rooms, into operating rooms, into emergency rooms – that your goodness, your kindness, your mercy, your humility would go before you so that your good works, your training, your confidence, your clinical skills can be an add-on to the goodness and the quality of character that you take with you,” said Monroe.
“I want to take a minute and thank all of our affiliate sites that you have trained with,” said Dr. Jennifer Christner, dean of the School of Medicine at Baylor. “One of the wonderful things that attracted me to Baylor, and I’m sure many of you too, is the incredible Texas Medical Center and all of the wonderful training and clinical opportunities that you had while you were here.”
Class president Paige Kennedy reminded classmates to trust in the match process and to remember that they trained at one of the best medical schools in the country.
“Wherever you go, you’re going to be more than prepared. We’ve had excellent teachers, mentors, faculty – many of whom are on this stage – and you are ready and you are going to be great physicians wherever we land.”
Dr. Mary Brandt, senior associate dean of student affairs, offered some final advice: “Don’t hurt anything that has a name – please don’t cut the ureter when you’re taking out the colon. But remember that you have a name, your spouse or significant other has a name, your family has a name, Baylor has a name and where you’re going has a name. So don’t hurt anything that has a name.”
Of the 177 fourth-year medical students participating in the match:
- 83 are entering primary care residency programs in the fields of family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, medicine/pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology or emergency medicine. This represents 47 percent of the students participating in the match.
- 55 students matched with residency programs at Baylor College of Medicine.
- 78 matched with residency programs in Texas.
As a child, Bryant Nieto had two dreams – to become a doctor and to be in the Navy. Nieto has been able to fulfill both dreams while at Baylor College of Medicine, where he was considered to be on active duty with the Navy while he completed his medical training. When he graduates this May, he will do a transitional year at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego and tour with the Navy as a flight surgeon.
For Christine Rizk, a diagnosis of Stargardt Disease, a form of genetic macular degeneration, at age 16 never slowed her down. When she chose to pursue a career in medicine, she decided to follow her older brother’s footsteps and attend Baylor College of Medicine, where she knew the faculty and staff would be supportive of her condition. Rizk matched in neurology at Baylor College of Medicine.
As a sophomore in college, Daniel Chilcote learned that the average age of girls who are involved in human trafficking cases was 14, the same age that his younger sister was at that time. He realized he wanted to get involved. When he was accepted to Baylor College of Medicine for medical school, he chose to defer for a year to work for Tiny Hands International, a nonprofit organization that runs children’s homes in Nepal and monitors the border between Nepal and India for possible trafficking cases. While he envisioned his work with the organization as separate from his career in medicine, he found opportunities to give talks about human trafficking during his psychiatry rotations and to organizations such as Doctors for Change. He hopes to stay involved in educating people on human trafficking as he pursues a residency in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.
As an accident-prone child, David Loyola found himself visiting the emergency room several times at a young age. While doing rotations in medical school he realized that emergency medicine was the field he wanted to pursue as it brought back memories of the emergency room dramas he watched as a kid. His family and fiancée were in attendance for the festvities. David matched in emergency medicine at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas.
For Omar Merchant, who he is as a medical student and a future doctor is defined by the work he does to serve the global community. This is especially true after a recent trip to Greece, where medical mission work took him to a Syrian refugee camp. The opportunity gave him a first-hand perspective on what refugees go through, and he says that seeing the devastation and providing a friendly face to the people in a world that has been cruel to them has been the most gratifying thing he’s ever done. As a medical student, he also tarted a company to develop a drug that activates the creation of new blood vessels in the body, a new frontier in medicine. Omar matched in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
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