Match Day: Resilient med students discover their paths

The envelopes contained the future.

On Match Day last Friday, the envelopes for each medical student held the reward for untold hours of work — no less than these med students’ professional hopes and dreams, printed on a sheet of paper, folded and tucked away.

And at 11 a.m., 129 UNMC medical students let it all out.

Check out more photos from UNMC's Kent Sievers on this Flickr album. And watch this video compilation by UNMC's Rich Watson.

With the opening of the envelopes and the notification of their residency assignments, the students found out where they’ll take their medical degrees and grow into practicing doctors.

They pulled out the printed assignments. Then they let out the tears, the screams and the hugs.

Soon the products of UNMC’s College of Medicine Class of 2022 will go out into the medical world — many here at the med center, but others to such places as Boston, Philadelphia and Rochester, Minnesota.

"It's just really exciting to finally have it kind of come to come to a point," said Mckenzie Rowe, who matched in general surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital in northern Virginia, "to see where life is going to take us."

Rohan Khazanchi marks the moment with family and friends.

Rohan Khazanchi, who matched in internal medicine-pediatrics at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, said he felt he had reached an endpoint on Match Day thanks to the many mentors, teachers, family and communities who invested in him.

Now, Khazanchi said, "I'm excited to start having the opportunity to give back a little bit."

In addressing the crowd at Baxter Arena, student class President Taylor Kratochvil, who himself found out his match at the ceremony, cited the challenges that the class faced from the pandemic, which often separated students into virtual spaces. But Kratochvil noted how exciting it was to have everyone back together — UNMC’s first indoor, in-person Match Day in three years.

Mallory Gandy and Austin Barry matched as a couple at UNMC.

"What an awesome day," said Kratochvil, who matched in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Mallory Gandy and fiancé Austin Barry found out they matched at UNMC — Gandy in obstetrics and gynecology, Barry in internal medicine.

Said Gandy, "We're both really excited to be part of the UNMC family now."

Wendy Grant, MD, associate dean for admissions and student affairs in the College of Medicine, said this class of medical students is incredibly resilient.

"You've had the hardest, the biggest impact on your medical education of any class that we’ve seen," Dr. Grant said. "And you have come out of this strong. … You are going to change the world."

A total of 51 UNMC med students matched in Nebraska.