Fourth-year students at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine celebrate Match Day

Published: Mar. 18, 2022 at 9:01 PM EDT
Email This Link
Share on Pinterest
Share on LinkedIn

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Fourth-year students at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine are now just weeks away from graduation. Friday, they celebrated another milestone, and learned where they are heading for residency training.

The 41 fourth-year students gathered with family members and friends for a Match Day event at the Jefferson Center.

Natalia Sutherland grew up in Galax. She matched to internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, her first choice.

“Match Day is when we all find out where we go for residency, so it’s kind of like all four years of our medical school experiences culminated on this day at noon, when we all opened our envelopes,” Sutherland told WDBJ7. “So it’s on par with graduation, for sure.”

Yazan Alshawkani came to the United States from Yemen when he was nine years old and he grew up in northern Virginia. He also received his first choice, matching with internal medicine at Johns Hopkins.

“I feel so blessed to be here, where we all truly got to know each other and what we care about and got the advice and support that we needed,” Alshawkani said. “And I achieved my dream essentially today, and obviously that’s due to the faculty and the education that we’ve had here at VTC.”

All 41 fourth-year students received matches. They’re now planning to pursue training in 22 specialties in 16 states.

Dr. Aubrey Knight is the Senior Dean for Student Affairs.

“They’ve raised the bar in every way across their entire four years, from board scores to the way they came through the pandemic,” Knight said. “And they put us over the top with this match.”

Sutherland, Alshawkani and their classmates are scheduled to graduate May 7.

Copyright 2022 WDBJ. All rights reserved.