News Release A match made in heaven 3/19/2010
School of Medicine students learn where they’ll serve their residency DENVER (March 19, 2010) - Medical student Ben Mendoza embraced an excited Carl Meredith, also a medical student, “We’re staying here,” he joyfully exclaimed, “we’re staying here!” Mendoza and Meredith were two of 155 students from the University of Colorado School of Medicine who piled into the Grand Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Denver for Match Day 2010. The next three years of their lives – their residency destinations – had been decided and tauntingly placed at the front of the ballroom in cream colored envelopes. At 11 a.m. the medical students were released to open their envelopes by Maureen Garrity, MD, associate dean of medical student affairs. The room roared to life as the stampede of students rushed to see what their futures held, followed by screams of excitement and tears of joy among students, their family and friends. Mendoza, photo right, and his wife, Jordan, left, opened their envelopes at the exact same moments, compared notes, and cried. Mendoza will be serving his residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital, his wife will be at University of Colorado Hospital . . . they get to stay in the same city; they get to be together. Meredith will be serving his residency at Swedish Medical Center in the area of family practice. He brought his younger brother along to open his envelope for him. “He is the only person I could trust to do something like this,” he said. “I definitely needed him here otherwise I would have just stared at the envelope for 45 minutes.” Meredith is ecstatic because Swedish was his first choice and it was where he was born. He explained that the resident position is the first fulltime paid position as physicians. Meredith also expressed that he will be expected to weather 80hour work weeks without showing any signs of stress. Richard Krugman, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, shared his Match Day experience in the 1970s. His envelope read University of Colorado School of Medicine, his wife responded “You promised me water.” Krugman replied. “Don’t worry it’s temporary.”
Although his placement did not end up being temporary, Krugman stressed to the graduates that – whether they like where their residency is to be served or not – this is a start to a new adventure, a step in their lives they’ll never forget. ### Contact: Dan Meyers, 303.724.5377, dan.meyers@ucdenver.edu