![\"Fourth-year](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Match_Day_03152024_4095.jpg\")
Fourth-year medical student Ganiru Anunike celebrates with her mother, Oby Anunike, and sister, Adaora Anunike, after matching at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, during Friday\u2019s Match Day.<\/p><\/div>\n
It was Match Day for Anunike and her fellow fourth-year medical students at The University of Toledo \u2014 the day they learn where they\u2019ll begin residency training in their chosen specialty.<\/p>\n
At noon, she and her classmates tore open the white envelopes and scanned the paper within. Anunike\u2019s said Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just surreal. They were so kind to me. They have from the beginning told me they were going to train me to be the best neurologist possible. They\u2019re going to take care of my wellbeing, they\u2019re going to care for me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just an incredible dream. Honestly, Toledo has been amazing. They have prepared me so well and I feel so confident and ready for the Mayo Clinic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Celebrated at medical schools across the country, Match Day is one of the most anticipated moments for aspiring physicians. Fourth-year students spend months interviewing with hospitals and universities across the country then wait to learn where they\u2019ve matched.<\/p>\n
At UToledo\u2019s event, held Friday, March 15, a total of 163 students matched into 19 medical specialties.<\/p>\n
Sarah Kearney was beaming after matching into diagnostic radiology at the UToledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences \u2014 her top choice.<\/p>\n
A native of Cincinnati, she first came to Toledo for the college\u2019s master of science in biomedical science program with the anticipation of going to medical school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted a profession that was fulfilling and had that classic \u2018I help people\u2019 kind of thing. It became even more personal as you see loved ones needing care,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are people\u2019s lives. To be in such an important profession was something that drew me in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kearney\u2019s father died from cancer in 2018 just before she completed her undergraduate degree. Her brother\u2019s death three years later, after her second year of medical school, was another major challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support that I got from everybody in the medical school to help me come back after that and eventually end up here for residency, it feels unreal,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m so excited for the future. I really hope to be in Toledo long term. I love it here, love the city, love the people, love the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students rank their top destinations, and academic and community-based health systems rank their top student choices. A computer algorithm administered by the National Resident Matching Program then matches students and residency programs together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bewildering. It\u2019s a whirlwind,\u201d said fourth-year student Jean Llenos. \u201cWaiting was the worst part but opening the envelope was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Llenos matched with Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, where he\u2019ll embark on a pathology residency.<\/p>\n
As an artist, writer and fantasy gamer, Llenos said he sees pathology as a natural fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the most artistic medical specialty. A lot of it has to do with visual literacy, pattern recognition. I feel like it\u2019s kind of a way to marry the things I love doing in my spare time with my profession,\u201d he said. \u201cMedicine is a science but it\u2019s important for it to be a bit of an art. It\u2019s science in the context of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Slembarski, a fourth-year medical student who grew up in Bowling Green, also felt that sense of bewilderment. Would he and his wife, Bethany, be moving to North Carolina, Florida, Texas or staying in Ohio?<\/p>\n
In the end, they aren\u2019t going far. He matched at Ohio State University in anesthesiology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really happy,\u201d he said. \u201cSeeing patients who are super nervous in pre-op, being able to comfort them, get them through their procedure and see them in post-op is really a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Anunike, the move to Minnesota and becoming a doctor is in some ways bringing her family full circle.<\/p>\n
Her father, Emmanuel Anunike, came to the United States from Nigeria with his wife, Oby Anunike, some three decades ago with the goal of becoming a physician. Circumstance got in the way, and he ultimately became an architect, earning his master\u2019s degree at Minnesota State University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just overwhelmed,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a fulfillment there for me, almost like I\u2019m living vicariously through her. She\u2019s so passionate about medicine. She and I would talk about what else could she have done. She said \u2018Dad, I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s anything else I could have done.\u2019 And I believe that. This was her calling. She\u2019s fulfilling those dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 160 medical students learned Friday where they\u2019ll embark on their residency training after graduation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":85120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,38,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85118"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85123,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85118\/revisions\/85123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}