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The two Omahans have gone to school together since seventh grade. First, it was middle school at St. Joan of Arc Catholic School, then on to Gross High School, undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas and medical school here at UNMC.
So when both learned Thursday that they are headed to Milwaukee for residencies, they were surprisingly … well … surprised.
“We can’t believe it,” said Rudman, who will do an otolaryngology residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
“Totally shocked,” said Sudyaka, who’s headed into an ophthalmology residency at Milwaukee’s St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Sudyka and Rudman were among the 114 UNMC medical students who learned where they will do residencies during the annual Match Day ceremony at Joslyn Art Museum’s Witherspoon Hall.
The two had each applied to more than 20 residency programs, and the only chance they had to maintain their sustained close proximity was if each landed a residency in Milwaukee — a prospect both decided was nearly impossible.
That was until a nervous Rudman opened her envelope on Match Day and let the audience know she was headed to Wisconsin – an act Sudyka had performed earlier in the ceremony.
Sudyka doesn’t need to worry about having a place to stay in Milwaukee. Rudman already has let her husband know that Sudyka will get to live in their basement once the couple gets a home in Wisconsin.
While Sudyka and Rudman prepare to head north, John Franzen of Ayr, Neb., and Marci Holmes of Omaha will now invest in hula shirts and sunscreen.
The couple, who will be married next Friday (with a reception at Joslyn Art Museum) , learned Thursday they will do residencies at the University of Hawaii — Franzen in psychiatry and Holmes in obstetrics and gynecology.
When they opened the envelope to learn of their residencies, the couple shared a hug and told the crowd they were headed to Hawaii, which drew applause and a palpable sense of envy from the crowd.
“We both applied to Hawaii on a whim,” Holmes said. “It really is just fate.”
Fate, it seems, will take Rogelio Machuca back to his hometown of Las Vegas to do a family medicine residency at the University of Nevada Affiliated Hospital, a fact that left Margaret Robinson a touch sad.
You see, Robinson, an assistant to Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Rubens Pamies, M.D., and her family had taken Machuca in like “a son” while he went to UNMC.
“She invited me to her house for fish one Friday night, it became a tradition and they became a family for me here,” Machuca said.
So as he prepared to announce where he would do his residency — his first choice being Las Vegas — Robinson sat in crowd hoping to hear the letters “U-N-M-C” come out of his mouth.
But there’s a silver lining for Robinson. Machuca’s brother was in medical school this year in New York. Yesterday, he learned he would be doing his residency — at UNMC.
“I’ll definitely invite him over for dinner with the family, too,” Robinson said.
Click here to see a complete list of all UNMC medical students who matched with residency programs on Thursday.