UCF medical student Taryn Posch chose family medicine as her specialty because she wants to take care of generations. And Friday’s Match Day was certainly a family affair. Posch and her fiancé, Kevin Beguiristain, both matched into residencies at University of Florida’s Shands Hospital as a dozen of their family members surrounded them and cheered.
“We’re matching today, getting married next month and then we graduate the month after that,” said Beguiristain, who will train in internal medicine. “It’s an adventure and definitely a bit of a whirlwind, but we’re doing it together.”
The two were among 108 UCF students who matched into residencies as part of National Match Day. UCF earned a 99% match placement rate, compared with a national average of 93.5%. Students matched into specialties that include internal and family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, radiology, surgery, pathology and emergency medicine. Forty-six of the 108 will do some or all their training in Florida.
Nationally, students are going to programs that include Brown, Duke, Emory, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Vanderbilt. In Florida, students are going to Orlando Health, Miami, University of Florida and University of South Florida. Nine are going to UCF-HCA Healthcare residencies in Greater Orlando, Gainesville and Tallahassee.
Medical school students cannot practice medicine immediately after graduation but must do three to seven years of residency training, depending on their specialty. Match results are kept secret until noon EST on the third Friday in March.
“At noon, as you open your match envelope, you are opening the door to your future,” Dr. Deborah German, vice president for health affairs and dean, said moments before noon. Dr. German recently announced she is transitioning away from her role leading the medical school, so Friday was her last Match Day as dean. She told students she was also opening the door to her own future, so “we are graduating together.”
During her 20 years as dean, Dr. German has conducted the first class of medical school for each new class. Called, “The Good Doctor – A UCF Tradition,” she asks students to think of the person they love most in the world and describe the characteristics of the doctor they want treating their loved one.
She writes those traits on a blackboard, which stays in the College of Medicine lobby as a contract between students, their faculty, patients and community. Class of 2026 students designed decorative boxes to hold their Match Day envelopes. The boxes contained their Good Doctor words from four years ago, including grateful, humble, compassionate and resourceful.
Holly Moots is the third M.D./Ph.D. graduate in UCF’s history. She researched pancreatic cancer during her joint degree and was thrilled to match into internal medicine at Lakeland Regional Hospital because of the residency’s focus on research and clinical trials. “With my background, I want to take what I’ve learned in the labs and translate that into a clinical setting,” she said. “I can finally use all of this knowledge I got here at UCF and apply it to help patients.”
Brandon Molligoda matched into neurology at Duke. He said his match result “means everything to me. I’ve wanted this since I was in middle school. I was always fascinated with how the brain works.”
Sharon Toor wore green for good luck on Match Day, and her family members wore green shamrock pins. The lucky vibes worked. She matched into anesthesiology at New York University. “I chose anesthesiology because I loves interacting with patients and comforting them before surgery,” she said. “And I get to be involved in a specialty of medicine that fixes things.”
Ariana Johnson recently won UCF’s Order of Pegasus, the university’s highest student honor. She began to cry even before she opened her envelope and learned she will be doing her otolaryngology residency at Old Dominion University. She said the tears came as she realized after four years of hard work in medical school she was achieving her dream. As an ear, nose and throat specialist, she will be able to combine excellence in surgery with clinical patient care. “I’ll be providing longitudinal care for patients,” she said. “With this specialty, you get to know patients for their whole lives.”
