Brink and his partner, Nate Dembowski, MD ’18, both matched with Yale New Haven Hospital — their top residency choice. Brink will continue his studies as a first-year internal medicine resident, and Dembowski will train as a first-year emergency medicine resident.

“It’s surreal. I didn’t think this would happen in my wildest dreams,” Dembowski said. “This is the happiest day of my life.”

For the second straight year, 100 percent of the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine’s students matched to residencies. In addition to Yale New Haven, other matches for the Class of 2018 included Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Brown University, the University of Virginia, New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University, Baylor Medical Center and Boston University Medical Center. Almost 44,000 students applied for the more than 33,000 positions offered internationally.

After spending nearly four years studying at the Netter School, about 80 aspiring doctors matched with the National Resident Matching Program. The assignments were produced by computer algorithms that yielded a residency location and specialty for about 30,000 students nationwide.

For Bruce Koeppen, MD, PhD, founding dean of the Netter School, Match Day validated a growing national reputation for producing students who are driven, compassionate and well prepared.

“As a new school, the 100 percent match is stupendous,” Koeppen said. “We have no long-term history, yet we are getting into really good programs. I could not be happier.”

As if the rigors of medical school were not enough to keep her busy, Nicole J. Prendergast, MD '18, wedged in the birth of her son, Gabriel, last June. She took her Step 2 exam when he was 5 weeks old.

Gabriel, sporting a bow tie, played with his mother’s navy envelope until it was time to open it. Its contents revealed that the Buffalo, New York, resident will head to Stanford University in California, her first choice.

Gabriel was embraced in a joyous family hug along with Prendergast’s husband, Steve, an engineer who thinks that area is a great fit for both of their careers.

“When I interviewed at Stanford, I fell in love with the residents and the faculty there. I love how their curriculum is set up, and I know I will get the clinical experience I need because they have three different sites: I’ll work in critical care, community care, and work with surgeons in the ER,” she said.

Jim Ahern, MD ’18, opened an envelope at Burt Kahn Court to find his top choice — Ventura County Medical Center in California — for a residency in family medicine.

“It felt like home when I visited there,” Ahern said. “I know they will push me to be the kind of doctor I want to be, and to practice the kind of medicine I want to practice.”

Dembowski and Brink were among six students who applied to The Match as a couple. Six future doctors connected with early match programs — two with ophthalmology, two with urology and two with the military match — and received their assignments in December and January.

Kelly M. Lucchesi, MD '18, met Gregory M. Chamberlin, MD '18, during their first year of med school. They went into The Match as a couple and were excited and relieved to learn they will be together at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She will train in neurosurgery and he in pathology.

The couple announced their engagement last June and are now looking forward to planning the wedding and finding a place to live.

“The residents I met here during interviews were some of my favorites — we shared the same interests and they were extremely supportive,” he said. Lucchesi characterized the UNC faculty as top notch and praised the surgical skills lab, where she can gain experience on cadavers before operating on actual patients.

Miyad Movassaghi, MD ’18, is one of this year’s students who matched early with the urology residency program at Columbia University in New York City.

“It’s really quite a humbling experience to go through this process after four years of medical school,” Movassaghi said. “But it’s also exciting to embark on that next adventure, that next chapter, and see one part of the finish line.”

Movassaghi was home when he discovered he was bound for one of the top urology residencies in America. The reveal was unscripted, authentic and beautiful.

“When the email first came across my phone, my wife and I just looked at it,” he said. “She was too nervous to open it, so I opened it. The moment I clicked the button, it was such joy. We were so incredibly happy.”

**Indicates more than 1 student matched at this institution in this specialty