The day they became doctors
Graduating medical students learn where they’ll serve their residencies
After endless hours of intense studying and clinical rotations, soon-to-graduate UC Irvine medical students saw their dreams come into focus on Friday, March 15, when they found out where they’ll start their careers as doctors.
Annual Match Day activities take place simultaneously at all U.S. medical schools, involving about 16,000 graduating students. At UC Irvine, it’s an emotional, festive event during which the future doctors are summoned to a podium one at a time to open an envelope and read aloud – before hundreds of family members, friends and classmates – the name and location of the hospital where each will spend the next three to seven years as a resident physician.
As part of this tradition, each student, upon reaching the podium, places a dollar bill in a doctor’s satchel that belonged to Dr. Robert Brown, who received it from his father upon gaining his doctorate in 1951 from the osteopathic school that later evolved into the UC Irvine School of Medicine.
The bag now belongs to Brown’s daughter, Nancy Koehring, who will retire this June after 24 years at UC Irvine, most recently as director of graduate medical education. On Match Days, the student called to the podium last – who had to wait the longest to learn his or her fate – wins the cash accumulated in the satchel.
Once again, the UC Irvine medical school’s graduating class secured residencies in some of the country’s most competitive programs. P.K. Fonsworth, a PRIME-LC participant who concurrently earned an MBA, will be a psychiatry resident at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Greg Chinn, who already has a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in developmental biology from UC Irvine, will go to UC San Francisco as a resident in its highly rated anesthesiology program.
And husband and wife David Flick and Renee Marinelli will head to Hawaii together as family medicine residents at the Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. Before they leave this summer, Flick, who serves in the U.S. Army, will be promoted to captain.
This year, 99 UC Irvine medical students took part in the Match Day event.
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- Graduating medical student Natalie Chen is thrilled to learn during UC Irvine’s Match Day ceremony Friday, March 15, where she’ll serve her residency.
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- P.K. Fonsworth, who learned that he’ll be a psychiatry resident at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, gets congratulations from friend Freada Kapor Klein.
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- A student exults near the podium as friends, family members, colleagues and medical school faculty look on during Match Day 2013. Steve Zylius / University Communications
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- Husband and wife David Flick and Renee Marinelli, both graduating UCI medical students, head to the podium. Both got family medicine residencies in Hawaii. Steve Zylius / University Communications
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- The crowd outside UCI’s Medical Education Building watches in anticipation as a graduating student opens the envelope revealing where he’ll begin his career as a doctor.
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- Graduating medical student David Thayer is joined at the podium by his wife and children. Steve Zylius / University Communications
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- Ralph Clayman (left), dean of UCI’s School of Medicine, and Jerry Maguire, senior associate dean of medical education, unveil a shrine to UCI medical student and human rights activist Thomas Hand, who was killed in a motorcycle accident last year. Steve Zylius / University Communications
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- Kimberly Ramirez drops a dollar bill into a well-worn doctor’s bag. UCI tradition decrees that each graduating medical student do this on Match Day before reaching the podium. The last one called up – who had to wait the longest to learn his or her fate – keeps the cash.
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- Ellena Peterson, associate dean of admissions & outreach at UCI’s School of Medicine, crosses her fingers after handing Greg Chinn the envelope containing his ”match” information. Steve Zylius / University Communications
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- Audience members watch appreciatively as UCI medical student Jeremy Sharib gets a congratulatory hug from his fiancee, Ali Laks, during the annual Match Day event. Steve Zylius / University Communications
