UCR SOM Celebrates Match Day 2024

On Friday, the UCR SOM class of 2024 learned where they will spend the next few years of their medical career during Match Day.

The annual event brings together fourth-year medical students and their families to celebrate their next steps toward becoming doctors. At 9 am exactly, students across the country opened envelopes containing the name of the hospital or school hosting their residency program. Emotions ran high as students shared the news with their cohort and guests.

Deborah Deas, MD, MPH the vice chancellor for health sciences and the Mark and Pam Rubin dean of the School of Medicine, congratulated the class of 2024 and thanked their families and friends for their support. “This is a special day, a day that marks another milestone in your professional development,” she told the assembled at Marinaj Banquets and Events in Moreno Valley. “Oh, the places you will go!”

Deas introduced guest speaker Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, who attended to recognize the UCR SOM for its contributions to training a diverse physician workforce.

“My breath was taken away by the diversity in this room,” said Rainer. “I was trying not to cry because it took my breath away at the size of this room and the representation of our communities in this room.”

Rainer noted the challenges physicians contend with in the face of healthcare bans across the country. “I just want to give a round of applause to you all for taking this on at this moment of time,” she said. “Kudos to UC Riverside for… really driving a community-based, mission-focused school, because I think it matters,” she added. “It matters that a lot of you are going to serve in the Inland Empire, it matters that a lot of you are from underrepresented communities in the medical profession, and it matters to the patients you will serve.”

Of the 68 SOM students who went through the match process this year, 96% were placed into residency programs. Of these, 43% will remain in Southern California for their residency programs, with 26% staying in the Inland Empire.

“This is great news for our mission,” said Deas, referring to the SOM’s goal to improve healthcare in the Inland Empire, with a central aim of training a diverse workforce of physicians to address the shortage of physicians in the area.

Julia Seiberling grew up in Riverside and said she was thrilled to be remaining in the area in her first-choice program, psychiatry at the UCR SOM. “I've been dreaming about this since I was a little kid, so to be here now, I'm over the moon,” she said. “I'm really attached to the region, and I know that there's a lot of need here that I saw firsthand growing up,” she continued. “It feels like a really exciting place to engage in the work that I care about and to take care of the community that I came from.”

Psychiatry at the UCR SOM was also the first choice, and successful match, for Aaron Fichtner. “Giving back to an underserved area is a major reason for me,” he explained. Fichtner moved from Chicago to Riverside for medical school. “We love this area so much, and we've come to call it home, so that's why we want to be here,” he said.

In addition, 50% of the new residents will enter primary care specialties, helping address the shortage of primary care physicians in the region.

Diana Ornelas, from La Puente, matched into family medicine at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, CA. She attended medical school with her twin sister, Denise Ornelas, who will be entering the obstetrics and gynecology program at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. “Our parents have been just instrumental in getting us here,” said Diana. “They've also made a lot of sacrifices for us to be able to have an education and chase our dream, so we're really happy that they're here with us.”

Danny Teraguchi, executive associate dean for Student Affairs, said he’s excited to see the future physicians’ journeys. “It's been amazing to see some of the students from the beginning of the first year to now, culminating one of their dreams,” he said. “That's why we’re here.”