University of Medicine and Health Sciences Produces Virtual Match Day Celebration for Graduating Students


UMHS Celebrates Match Day 2021

To medical students, Match Day is more important than anything, even more important than actual graduation. It’s a moment in time where everything they have worked so hard for, have sacrificed so much for, comes together in an ultimate reveal—the stakes of the answer couldn’t be any higher.

The University of Medicine and Health Sciences, (UMHS), a small, mission-driven medical school with a commitment to student support and a legacy of successful residency placements in the United States and Canada, honored the climactic culmination of four years of medical school with a video production celebrating Match Day 2021. Since the UMHS campus is operating at a limited capacity as a result of the pandemic, the heartwarming video provides an occasion to collectively celebrate the significant milestone and captures the dramatic moment that many of the 137 UMHS med students and graduates learned where they will begin their careers as working physicians and the specialty they will practice. The spontaneous reactions of joy as students logged on to discover their Match results were captured by a support network of parents, friends, children, and spouses and featured in the video – offering an intimate look into the end of a long and unexpected journey and the beginning of a new adventure.

Professionally produced by an Emmy-winning production company, the UMHS Virtual Match Day 2021 celebration features congratulatory remarks from President Warren Ross, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Edwin Purcell, Dean of Student Affairs Dr. Prakash Mungli, and words of encouragement from Dr. George Shade, Dean of Clinical Science at UMHS.

“If nothing else, we’ve learned over the past four years that medical school is extremely difficult; some might say it’s like trying to climb Mount Everest,” Dr. Shade told the new residents. “For the rest of your professional career keep in mind this old Latin saying: Per Ardua ad Astra, [meaning] ‘Through struggle to the stars.’ It’ll carry you through some of the toughest moments of your life.”

Many of the students from UMHS have followed a non-traditional path on their journey to becoming a doctor and have overcome significant obstacles on their way to becoming practicing physicians. Brandy Admendares, Assistant Director of Clinical Placement noted that this year’s students faced unprecedented hurdles in getting through clinical rotations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the students matched into specialties spanning anesthesiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology and surgery, many in the video can be heard exclaiming that their match is what they always wanted.

“To medical students, Match Day is more important than anything, even more important than actual graduation,” said Patrick McCormick, Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs at UMHS. “It’s a moment in time where everything they have worked so hard for, have sacrificed so much for, comes together in an ultimate reveal—the stakes of the answer couldn’t be any higher. Match Day answers the life-changing questions of, ‘Where will I be picking up and moving in order to redefine myself as a professional in the most noble field there is? Where will I be privileged to begin my career as a resident physician?’ Quite simply, it’s the day a medical student’s dream comes true.”

UMHS explored the history and significance of Match Day for future physicians in its blog, The UMHS Endeavour. While the process has evolved since the first Match Day in 1952, the importance of the occasion endures as an iconic event for all past, current and future physicians.

To see the full virtual Match Day 2021 celebration, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO-oqSlwEsI

About UMHS

The University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS), is a small, mission-driven medical school with a commitment to student support and a legacy of successful residency placements in the United States and Canada. UMHS was founded in 2007 by medical education pioneers Warren and Robert Ross to deliver a highly personalized school experience. Graduates of UMHS earn a Doctor of Medicine degree (MD) and qualify to practice medicine throughout the United States and Canada. Students begin their Basic Science studies in St. Kitts, West Indies, and complete their clinical training in the United States. With an unprecedented 96% student retention rate, the vast majority of students that begin their medical studies at UMHS go on to obtain residencies. For more information visit https://www.umhs-sk.org/.

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