Fifteen students in the College of Human Medicine gathered Thursday at University Club for what is nationally known as Match Day — the day graduating medical students learn where they will spend their residency.

At noon, medical students proceeded to open their letters. Some began to shed tears of joy and others exchanged hugs with their significant other. Some even grabbed their cell phone to share the news with a family member elsewhere.

“This is a culmination of four years of medical school and what it’s all built up for,” said Karlene Torres, director of clinical student programs for the College of Human Medicine.

Suny Caminero, who is headed to Jacksonville, Fla., as an obstetrician and gynecologist resident, said she hadn’t started thinking about this day in particular until her third year of medical school. She said she was usually thinking on a week-by-week basis, more worried about succeeding on her exams.

But as she opened her letter Thursday, she was visibly ecstatic.

“I was so happy. I just want to cry,” said Caminero. “It’ll give me more time with my family … it was really where I wanted to go.”

John Wechter, who discovered he will be an orthopedic resident at the University of Minnesota, had a similar reaction. Although Thursday’s news wasn’t that big of a surprise for him, he said he is still happy he will be in a program with a great group of people in a fun — but cold — city.

“I’m just really happy and blessed to be going into orthopedics in general,” Wechter said. “It’s just an awesome field … very artistic, hands-on field.”

Wechter said he knew he wanted to go into a field that also offered opportunities to do mission work overseas and in areas needing assistance.

“After I finish residency, my wife and I actually would like to move to Africa for a couple years,” Wechter said. “Then after that … every couple months I’ll travel overseas or even inside the U.S. to areas where they need it a lot.”

But from lectures and exams to rotations and interviews, medical students have prepared long and hard for this day, Torres said.