In a short time, Son Tran has come a long ways.
In 1990, he and his family — one of the last to leave Vietnam under the U.S. government’s refugee program — moved to Lincoln, Neb., where the 17-year-old learned English and attended two years at Southeast High School before graduating from Nebraska Wesleyan University.
On Thursday, the UNMC fourth-year medical student read the National Resident Matching Program letter that defined the next step in his life: an internal medicine residency in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“This is a dream come true,” the 28-year-old said of his medical school education.
Tran was one of 117 students in UNMC’s College of Medicine to receive residency assignments Thursday during Match Day ceremonies at Omaha’s Botanical Center. Similar ceremonies were held at medical schools throughout the United States.
Of 117 UNMC students, 48 (41 percent) are staying in Nebraska and 44 (38 percent) will do residencies through UNMC. The remaining students will do residencies in 27 states, from Hawaii, Oregon and California to New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
The National Resident Matching Program, a private, not-for-profit corporation, was established in 1952 to provide a uniform date of appointment to residency positions. Residencies last from three to five years and allow newly graduated physicians to specialize in an area of medicine.
Tami DenOtter of Des Moines, Iowa, was nervous Thursday, so she asked her sister Mindy Ciprian to join her at the podium and announce her residency match to the crowd. DenOtter, who is godmother to Ciprian’s 8-month-old daughter, Mati, was especially pleased to find out she’d be doing her residency at Northwestern University in Chicago — near her sister and godchild.
Scott Diesing of Omaha knew in January that he would be doing his neurology residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. On Thursday, his wife, Raquel, 3-year-old son Liam, and 1 1/2-year-old daughter Emily learned he’d also be doing his internship there.
Ben Kerrey, son of former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, and girlfriend, Katie DiMasi, are headed for Cincinnati, Ohio, where they both will do residencies in pediatrics. Meanwhile, Jeff McGee of Sacramento, Calif., will do his residency in New Orleans, following his May 18 wedding.
Meanwhile, Jane Theobald of Kimball will remain close to home. She will be staying in Omaha where she will do a psychiatry residency at Creighton University. A single parent with two children, Theobald started medical school three months after her divorce.
“The first year was tough, but I quickly built a support system,” said Theobald, who once had taught medical technology at the University of Wyoming. “After that it wasn’t any different than working fulltime. You rise to the occasion.”
Since 1995, UNMC has had an average of 60 percent students enter primary care residencies for their first year of training. This year, 79 students, or 68 percent of the class, placed in primary care, which includes family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics and those who ultimately will train in specialties of dermatology, radiography and anesthesiology. This year, 32 percent of graduates placed in specialties of surgery, neurosurgery and orthopedics.
Photos in descending order: UNMC medical students and roommates Jeff McGee and Son Tran; Tami DenOtter, left, reacts when her sister Mindy Ciprian announces her residency site; medical students Ben Kerrey and Katie DiMasi; Jane Theobald; and medical student Scott Diesing with wife, Raquel, son Liam and daughter Emily.