Students celebrate residency matches at Match Day

Senior medical students at the Whiddon College of Medicine gathered March 17 at the Mobile Convention Center in downtown Mobile to commemorate Match Day. They joined future physicians at medical schools across the United States and Canada to learn where they will be completing their residency training.

Ife Akisanya led the Match Day announcements for the Class of 2023. But before she walked across the stage and pinned her residency match location on a U.S. map, the Gadsden, Alabama, native opened her envelope to cheers, applause and hugs from her family and friends.

Akisanya’s path to medical school began during her undergraduate studies at Auburn University. Through the DREAM

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(Diversity Recruitment and Enrichment for Admission into Medicine) pipeline program, she took MCAT prep courses, continued to shadow physicians and met several students through the Whiddon College of Medicine who would later become her mentors.

“I enjoyed my experience as a DREAM student, so I couldn’t think of a better place for me to go to medical school,” she said.

For Akisanya and the other members of the Class of 2023, Match Day is the culmination of four years of hard work; but, for her, it’s also the next step toward her emergency medicine residency at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

“More than anything, I am so excited to experience this day with my classmates,” in Santa Monica, California. Skull-based meningiomas are one of the most technically challenging diseases in neurosurgery due to the proximity of the tumor to critical neurovascular structures. The study breaks down the superior clinical outcomes and surgical techniques promoting a she said. “It has been a long four years, and I can’t wait to see where everyone matches! I am also excited for a new chapter of my life to start and finally, finally become a physician.”

After residency, Akisanya said she may consider fellowships, but overall is committed to being a leader by example to underrepresented minority students.

“I want to be heavily involved in a pipeline program that promotes diversity and inclusion for the medical school where I end up working,” she said. “I also want to be a mentor to underrepresented minority students and residents who are pursuing a career in medicine.”

Aidan Gilbert was working for a breast oncologist as a biostatistician when he minimally invasive approach to skull base surgery. This approach focuses on smaller openings, yet an expanded surgical view, with the use of sophisticated technologies and processes, but refrains from using rigid brain retraction.

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As Match Day neared, Gilbert said he was feeling fortunate and thankful to everyone around him who has been an integral part in shaping him into the man he is. Starting a family has been one of the defining features of his medical school career, and his children have been his inspiration and driving force behind his success, he said.

“My daughter called me Dr. Aidan Daddy Gilbert the other day and told me she wants to be a surgeon like me,” he said.

As he opened his envelope, he was elated to see that he matched in surgery at USA Health and immediately kissed his wife to celebrate.

As her family looked on, Sarah Fillingim opened her envelope with the help of her husband. She matched in dermatology at the University of Mississippi Medical