Graduating medical students got the news they were waiting for on Friday, March 20. One hundred and fifty-five students at the Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM) found out where they’ll be heading for residency during a virtual Match Day celebration—a first for the medical school. Instead of receiving their match results surrounded by family, friends, faculty members, and staff in the atrium of the Jordan Medical Education Center (JMEC), students were virtually cheered on as they opened emails with their Match results.
“Receiving the results at home instead of in JMEC was definitely different,” said Gina Chang, a graduating medical and MPH student who matched at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphiain Child Neurology and who had cheered on classmates at last year’s Match Day in JMEC. “I still felt a lot of the excitement and adrenaline, though—I had my friends on various video chats and I had my parents in a video chat as well, so everyone was around. While it’s not the same, it’s still incredibly exciting.”
The COVID-19 outbreak has meant shifts in normal operations across Penn Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, all to provide a safe environment for patients, students, staff, and others. With the help of social media, FaceTime, and video chats, PSOM students celebrated Match Day 2020 online.
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
