Reflection and Excitement at Match Day
After four years of hard work, students from the Sidney Kimmel Medical College Class of 2024 find out where they will complete their residencies.
The Class of 2024 celebrates with friends and loved ones on Match Day. (Photos by ©Thomas Jefferson University Photography Services/Video by Joe Amato)
For a nerve-racking 30 minutes, Gloria Pereira and Joe Paladino sat side by side in Connelly Auditorium to see where they would match and complete their residencies. The understandably nervous couple will get married next month, so their near-future plans would depend heavily on matching at the same place.
Fortunately, once the Sidney Kimmel Medical College students tore open the envelopes at the end of the ceremony, the news proved all they had hoped for. They both will head to Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, Pereira for psychiatry and Paladino for anesthesiology.
“It’s a lot of shock,” says Paladino moments after the reveal. “I haven’t processed it yet.”
“I was nauseous and crying all morning,” adds Pereira with fresh tears in her eyes. “Now that it’s here, I’m numb. I don’t even know what to think.”
Med students Gloria Pereira and Joe Paladino hug after finding out they both matched to New York’s Montefiore Medical Center. They’re getting married in April.
The smile across Pereira’s face hinted at her feelings, though, as a sense of excitement and relief filled the room for her and her classmates—a moment not lost on Dr. Charles Pohl, the University’s senior vice provost for student affairs.
The Class of 2024 will have a special place in University history, he noted during the March 15 Match Day event. They began their medical education at the pandemic’s uneasy height of summer 2020 and will graduate during Jefferson’s Bicentennial.
“You will be forever etched in our lives,” Dr. Pohl says. “Between your resolve and your spirit, you not only hit the ground running, but you exceeded our expectations. You made an incredible impact on us, our patients, our community, the faculty and the staff.”
Sidney Kimmel Medical College Dean Dr. Said Ibrahim vividly recalls his own Match Day where, like Pereira and Paladino, he sat nervously with his wife to see where their future took them.
“It’s an absolute joy for me to join you today,” he says. “You’re entering one of the most special industries in the world: health care. This is a milestone for you, and I wish you good luck.”
Of the 241 Jefferson med students who participated in this year's National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), the University match rate stood about 2% higher compared to all U.S. allopathic graduating seniors, Dr. Pohl says. An additional 16 students didn’t take part in the NRMP because of a commitment to one of the armed services, the ophthalmology match, the urology match or a deferment of residency. With these early matches, Jefferson had one of the highest match rates nationally.
For the NRMP, the specialties of internal medicine, anesthesia, pediatrics and general surgery received the most matches for Jefferson students, says Dr. Pohl, also the vice dean for student affairs and career counseling at Sidney Kimmel Medical College.
Overjoyed to match at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for pediatrics, Iswarya Manivannan says she has always loved working with children. Plus, she looks forward to returning home to New Jersey.
Of the 241 students who participated in this year's National Resident Matching Program, the University match rate stood about 2% higher compared to all U.S. allopathic graduating seniors.
“Pediatrics is my calling, and that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life,” she says. “I’m just trying to take this all in.”
Aisosa Ize-Iyamu matched for pediatrics as well and will continue her medical career at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Surrounded by family and friends, she basked in the moment, too.
“It’s the culmination of all the hard work. This is literally the best day of our lives,” she says. “I love working with kids and their parents. You do so much in the field of peds, and you can see so much change.”
For students who successfully matched through the NRMP, 32% will stay at Pennsylvania hospitals and 30% matched to a Jefferson Health hospital or one of its affiliates, Dr. Pohl says.
Sidney Kimmel Medical College Dean Dr. Said Ibrahim vividly recalled his own Match Day. “It’s an absolute joy for me to join you today,” he told the students.
“To get into Jefferson feels absolutely amazing—I love the environment and residency,” says Sheraz Qamar, who will enter internal medicine to eventually go into cardiology. “The South Asian population has a particularly high burden of cardiovascular disease, and that’s one of the reasons why I want to go into this field.”
Noah Allanoff won’t have to travel far to continue his medical path for neurology either. “It always has been Jefferson,” he says, noting his sister went here as well. “It’s in my blood, and it’s an awesome place. I will get some great training by interacting with the neurologists here. It spoke to me.”
Justin Williams also felt the draw to study the brain further. He will head to the University of Buffalo School of Medicine for neurological surgery.
These envelopes revealed where the medical students would complete their residencies.
“This is the culmination of four years of hard work,” he says. “I love the impact I could have on patients’ lives. You can do such amazing things, helping save someone’s mother, daughter or grandfather.”
Members of the Class of 2024 not only celebrated the moment with family (and some pets) on Lubert Plaza following the ceremony, but they shared in the collective excitement for their classmates.
“I get to see where all my friends have matched,” says Thomas Connelly, after matching at Christiana Care in Delaware for emergency medicine. “Knowing what they will accomplish over the next few years is so heartwarming.”
Jasmine Han, heading to California’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for primary care, agrees. “I’m grateful for this moment and this opportunity to see everyone match,” she says. “There’s so much joy.”
See more scenes from Match Day below.
