BETHLEHEM, Pa. — At noon on the third Friday of every March, graduating medical students across the country open an envelope.
Inside is information on where they'll spend their next four years of medical training, known as residency.
It’s called Match Day, and it's just about the biggest day of a medical student’s journey — so big that many family and friends travel to stand beside their student for the big reveal.
As the clock struck noon Friday, the frenzy was on in the Blast Furnace Room at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks.
There, 38 fourth-year medical students from the Temple/St. Luke’s School of Medicine, a branch campus of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, tore open their envelopes, and 13 matched at St. Luke's University Health Network.
3, 2, 1 Open your envelopes!
Taj Singh was elated upon opening his envelope to find he had landed his first choice — a spot in the internal medicine residency program at St. Luke's.
“I love it here — this is above all, right here,” Singh said.
Singh taught high school chemistry and physics for 2 1/2 years before switching to medicine.
“Teaching, it got tough during COVID," he said. "I knew I wanted to go to med school, so I applied at that point, and I got in."
A Parkland High School graduate, he said although his first love was “trying to become an NBA player,” he was equally inspired “pretty early on” by his father and sister, both doctors, to enter the medical field.
A very happy Kelly Riccio, of Boyertown, was matched with her first choice, St. Luke’s family medicine residency in Bethlehem.
Riccio, 41, fell in love with the discipline while completing her clerkship at the Bethlehem campus, and the faculty and residents made her feel “part of the team,” according to a St. Luke’s release.
“I was always intimidated by it (medicine), but the further I got down the road with teaching music, I just knew I had to go for it.”Kelly Riccio, medical student
Riccio is a mother of three who spent the past 13 years as a music teacher at a number of schools in the area.
She celebrated with her best friend, Laura, two of her three children, and her husband, Joseph.
Being a doctor was a childhood dream, as was music, but she always felt torn trying to decide. Guided into teaching music upon high school graduation, Riccio said the urge for medicine was something she never let go and simply couldn’t ignore any longer.
“I was always intimidated by it,” she said of medicine, “but the further I got down the road with teaching music, I just knew I had to go for it.”
Process leading up to the day
According to the National Resident Matching Program, the matching cycle begins in September during the final year of medical school.
Applicants apply to residency programs of their choice, and throughout the fall and early winter, interview with the programs.
From early February to early March, applicants and program directors come to the NRMP to submit confidential rank order lists that captures their true preferences for training.
“There hasn’t been a moment that I haven’t felt supported and motivated, and I really feel so, just, it’s just a moment of bliss today. I’ve had amazing mentors who have really helped pave the way for this moment."Hannah Kahn, medical student
The NRMP uses a computerized mathematical algorithm to process those lists and place applicants into training programs.
On Monday of Match Week, participants traditionally find out only if they have been matched with a program.
Opening the envelope on Friday, Match Day, reveals the where of the process.
Lehigh Valley Health Network also held its Match Day on Friday, at the ballroom at the Renaissance Allentown Hotel at noon.
A dozen medical students with the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine simultaneously opened their envelopes along with fellow students at the Tampa campus.
A natural when it comes to kids
At the St. Luke's event at SteelStacks, Hannah Kahn, of Allentown, found out she’ll head to Penn Medicine in Philadelphia to pursue a residency in anesthesiology.
“I actually came into medical school thinking I wanted to do dermatology," Kahn said. "But I fell in love with the hospital, and the ORs, and just the teamwork of anesthesia.
"So it wasn’t until about a year and a half ago that I decided I wanted to do anesthesia,” she said, beaming.
Specializing in pediatrics, Khan will move on to a one-year fellowship after she completes residency.
“I love anesthesiology, and I love the medicine and hands-on component of anesthesia, but I really love the pediatric demographic," she said.
"I grew up as a camp counselor and a swim instructor, and I just always loved working with kids.”
As for the training at Temple/St. Luke’s undergrad program, she had one word for it: Incredible.
“It was her number one choice, so that's terrific.”Andy Kahn, Hannah Kahn's father
“There hasn’t been a moment that I haven’t felt supported and motivated, and I really feel so, just, it’s just a moment of bliss today," she said.
"I’ve had amazing mentors who have really helped pave the way for this moment."
Her dad, Andy Kahn, celebrated with the rest of the family and his daughter’s boyfriend.
“If she’s happy, I’m happy,” the father said of the soon-to-be first doctor in the family. “It was her number one choice, so that's terrific.”
