22-03-2025
The envelope, please: TTUHSC students get matched
Mar. 21—Fourth-year students from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center's School of Medicine on Friday were matched to residency programs across the state and nation amid tears of joy and hugs.
The event was held at the Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.
Twenty-six TTUHSC School of Medicine students set to graduate in May applied to residency programs in their preferred specialties and then visited sites to evaluate and ultimately rank their preferred residency programs, a news release said.
Meanwhile, administrators at each site interviewed and then ranked the applicants.
The National Resident Matching Program coordinates the algorithm-driven matching process, which is designed to produce results for students seeking to fill the thousands of hands-on training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals.
The results are sealed in individual envelopes, which students at all of the nation's medical schools open simultaneously. The results tell the students where they will spend the next three to seven years of their residency training and what specialty they will pursue for their professional careers, the release said.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Regional Dean Dr. Timothy Benton said this was an an amazing group of students.
"Administratively, we get to know ahead of today whether they matched, and that way, we get a few days in case they didn't match on the first go-round to help them find a spot. And 100 percent of them matched initially, so that's tremendous success. It speaks very highly of the education that they get here in the Permian Basin," Benton said.
He added that this means they are highly competitive.
Benton said he still remembers his own Match Day.
"I did this, this year it will be 30 years ago ... and I remember it forever. All of them are doing it across the nation at the same time," he added.
Dr. Martin Ortega, assistant regional dean for medical education at TTUHSC medical school, said Friday's event was a joyous occasion and a culmination of a lot of effort for fourth-year medical students who are now ready to make the transition into residency.
Over the last two years in the Permian Basin, these students have been involved in what are called core clerkships — everything from family medicine and pediatrics to obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, psychiatry and internal medicine.
They were also exposed to other specialties.
Ortega said the students matched into programs for primary care, surgery, radiology, oncology and dermatology.
With a lot of community support, Ortega said, students are exposed to rural medicine as they work with community physicians and Texas Tech physicians in the region.
"Our region is very spread out and includes a lot of rural communities so that exposure is really important ... because it informs decisions on where they ultimately will practice. Some of them are choosing to stay here in programs that we have in obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine," Ortega said.
Some students will also go to other parts of the state or country and some to metro areas.
"(It's) a great mix of specialties and practice sites," Ortega said.
While Friday was a day of celebration, he noted that there is still more work and learning for the students to do.
Ortega said it's "incredibly rewarding" to be part of the students' journey and to help them work toward personal and professional development.
He added that Texas Tech health sciences center is very grateful for all the support the communities have poured into medical education in the region.
"This is something that has been going on for several decades and it's so rewarding to see how that's grown over the years and how some of these students have translated into resident physicians and how some of our resident programs have produced many of the physicians that take care of us here at home. It's really great to be part of that pipeline and this is one part of it," Ortega said.
Carina Goodart was matched to TTUHSC in Midland to continue training in family medicine. She is from El Paso so she said it feels good to stay relatively close to home.
Her path started in high school and has been a long time in the making.
Going up to get the envelope that held her destination, it felt like her whole future was inside.
"You don't know where you're going to go next until you open it. I had my whole family here. It's just as scary for them because they want me to get what I want," Goodart said.
After opening it, she finally knew.
She will be the first doctor in her family.
"They're absolutely ecstatic," Goodart said of her parents' feelings on her achievement.
Watching medical TV shows like "House" inspired her to become a doctor. In high school, she got some shadowing experience at a hospital and then "everything just fell into place."
"I'm just really thankful to have matched and to be a doctor," Goodart said.
Odessa Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Renee Earls has attended several Match Days.
"It is very exciting and uplifting to see where these medical students are headed. We have the reception for the third and fourth year medical students at the chamber when they arrive," Earls said.
Some stay and some leave.
"I love seeing their expressions and most of the time it's tears of joy with their families," Earls said.
She added that everyone gets so emotional and excited.
"It's very emotional for me and I don't know one of these students," Earls said.
