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Traditional "Match Day" At Johns Hopkins March - 03/18/2009

Traditional "Match Day" At Johns Hopkins March

School of Medicine fourth-year students gather with classmates and family to learn their residency sites
Release Date: March 18, 2009

Although the majority of the nation’s fourth-year medical students can go online to find out which residencies are theirs, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine class of ’09 will continue the school’s annual ritual of gathering and opening official letters in the presence of classmates, professors and loved ones.

At Hopkins, the National Residency Matching Program’s Match Day 2009 on March 19 will take place at an invitation-only celebration on the medical school campus.

Students who have already rank-ordered lists of medical centers and hospitals, completed lengthy paperwork and sat for interviews will simultaneously open envelopes to learn where they will do specialty training .

As members of a highly selective medical school, Johns Hopkins students often match to their first or second choice residency sites.

“Match Day is one of those memorable milestones in medical school careers,” says Thomas Koenig, associate dean for student affairs. “It’s a chance for us as a school to celebrate our students’ achievements and to look ahead to their even greater accomplishments in the years to come. Wherever they match, they will always be considered Hopkins’ own.”

Envelopes will be opened promptly at noon. To cover Match Day ceremonies and arrange interviews with students, contact Eric Vohr or Hope Marijan.

Below are a few of the personal stories that may interest news media:

Rozalina Grubina
Although Grubina’s journey to medical school was rough, she insists that the obstacles she faced were blessings that provided her with insights and opportunities. Born in Riga, Latvia, Grubina and her family were forced to flee from growing ethnic and religious persecution that escalated with the collapse of the former Soviet Union. In 1993, the family relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y., after the U.S. government granted Grubina’s family refugee status and an opportunity to rebuild their lives. Because of these experiences, she is especially interested in working with immigrant and refugee populations. Originally in the class of 2008, Grubina took one year off to complete a Howard Hughes Medical Institutes research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. She is looking to complete her residency in internal medicine and specialize in endocrinology.

Ryan Childers and Jo Martin
Childers and Martin met and started dating early during their first year of medical school at Johns Hopkins. Childers is an Arizona State University graduate and is anticipating a residency in internal medicine with plans to continue his research in bioethics. Martin, a Stanford graduate, is looking forward to a residency in dermatology and is interested in autoimmune diseases and nonmelanoma skin cancer. “We are very much hoping to match together to the same hospital, or at the very least in the same city,” Childers says. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed!” The couple has planned a three-week trip to Europe in April, during which they hope to relax, regroup and prepare for the next phase in their lives. Aside from medicine, their shared interests include cooking, hiking and camping.

Amit Vora and Gargi Khare
Vora and Khare first met during Gargi’s “revisit” weekend to Johns Hopkins when she was choosing a medical school and Vora was already a first-year medical student. Khare, an MIT graduate, is a traditional Indian dancer who taught Bhangra (a North Indian dance form) in Boston and continued to teach in her first year at Hopkins. She has already matched at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and hopes that Vora will match somewhere in Boston as well. Vora graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with a double major in biology and economics. Throughout his undergrad and medical school career, he volunteered at a local homeless shelter in Baltimore on a weekly basis. He also earned a master’s degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health, and is planning for a residency in internal medicine.

CONTACT INFO:

Rozalina Grubina
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 718-986-4251

Ryan Childers
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 480-239-8145

Jo Martin
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone Number: 971-404-7464

Amit Vora
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone Number: 201- 344-8709

Gargi Khare
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 484-802-7862

For the Media

Media Contacst:

Eric Vohr; 410-955-8665; [email protected]
Hope Marijan; 410-502-9421; [email protected]