Celebrations mark Match Day

For 177 Tulane medical students who are about to graduate, Match Day brought long-awaited news about where they will go for residency training. They gathered with friends and family on Friday (March 16) to open their Match Day envelopes and to celebrate. Thirty-five of the students have residencies in Louisiana.

Allen Miraflor, right, celebrates the news that he will train in anesthesiology at the University of Miami Jackson Hospital, while Julia Staisch, left, will be at the University of Chicago Medical Center for a neurology residency. The Match Day event was held in the River City Ballroom at Mardi Gras World in downtown New Orleans.

Stro Ashburn, left, greets his residency news with an excited fist pump. He will go to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina to train in surgery. With him are Claire Ashburn, center, and Susan Ashburn.

Sharing their residency news are med students Leigh Hanke, left, and Jessica Ryu. Hanke heads to New York City for a medicine residency at Einstein/Beth Israel Medical Center and physical medicine and rehabilitation training at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Ryu will be at Stanford University for a residency in orthopaedic surgery.

Match Day is a milestone in the lives of medical students. William Kethman, who will go to Stanford University for his residency in general surgery, hugs his fiance, Kelly Thibodeaux. The new doctors start their training in New Orleans and across the country on July 1.