Human medicine graduate student Miguel Sanchez phones his wife Thursday afternoon in the hallway of Kellogg Center after receiving his letter of acceptance to University of California, Davis for his residency. Sanchez was relieved after being granted his first choice where he will train in pediatrics.
At the stroke of noon, Miguel Sanchez took his cell phone and what he considered to be one of the most important unopened envelopes he would ever hold into the hallway.
Sanchez, a human medicine graduate student, said he couldn’t wait to call his wife in California to tell her he was accepted as a pediatric resident at the University of California, Davis.
“I only applied to places in California,” he said. “That’s where I grew up, and it’s where my wife lives. I was really hoping to get back to that area.”
Fifteen students in the College of Human Medicine gathered Thursday at Kellogg Center for what is nationally known as Match Day — the day graduating medical students learn where they will spend their residency.
Sanchez’s wife, dog and roots aren’t the only reasons he had his heart set on returning to his hometown.
“California will provide me with good training to help me serve the population I want to help,” he said.
That population is children.
“I chose pediatrics because I have always been interested in children’s issues, whether it be health or promoting a higher education,” Sanchez said.
Karlene Torres, director of clinical student programs for the College of Human Medicine, said she was as excited to see where students were going as they were.
“It’s kind of like raising children and seeing them go off to college,” Torres said. “I get to see the goals they have been working toward come to life.”
Students are always nervous to find out where they will spend the next three or more years of their lives, depending on the specialty they chose, she said.
“Before they open their envelopes, everybody has a few heart palpitations,” Torres joked.
After anxiously waiting for about two months, Kania McGhee was pleased to find she will remain in Michigan as an obstetrician/gynecologist resident in Grand Rapids.
“It wasn’t my first choice, but it was up there,” she said.
McGhee’s husband, Jason McGhee, said although Grand Rapids was not his first choice, he is proud of his wife and plans to make the best of the situation.
“I was rooting for her to get St. John’s in Detroit, but I’m OK with it,” he said.
Torres said all students who received matches Thursday seemed pleased.
“I always tell students, ‘until you see it in writing, it’s not true,’” she said.
“But they, and whoever they told, are the only ones who know if they got their first choice or not.”
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