The Class of 2024 learned its residency placements through the National Resident Matching Program, which uses a computer algorithm to generate the destinations and disciplines for fourth-year medical students all across America for the next three or more years. This year’s Match included 44,853 applicants for 41,503 positions in 6,395 residency programs.

For Dr. Phillip Boiselle, dean of School of Medicine, the annual event is a moment unique in higher education.

“Match Day is such a distinctive event that it defies accurate comparisons within academia. In fact, some have reached beyond academics to compare Match Day to the NFL Draft or the Academy Awards,” Boiselle told the hundreds of friends and family members and friends in attendance. “Others have even compared it to the dating app Match.com, which seems somewhat apt given our record number of couples matches today.”

Boiselle also celebrated the sense of community fostered by the Class of 2024.

“You remind us on a daily basis of why we are here and of why what we do matters. Your intellectual curiosity, enthusiasm about the practice of medicine; commitment to the health and well-being of our community; and compassion for your patients — and for one another — are admirable and inspiring in equal measure,” Boiselle said.

“As your futures unfold today, remember that no matter where your matches take you, you will always be part of the Quinnipiac Netter School of Medicine family.”

Quinnipiac Netter students matched with residency programs all across the country, including Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Harvard South Shore, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Yale New Haven Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic and Baylor University Medical Center.

Overall, the Class of 2024 matched in 23 different specialties, subspecialties and programs — including emergency medicine, family medicine, neurology, obstetrics-gynecology, pediatrics, plastic surgery, psychiatry and radiation oncology. The residencies span 22 states, with 18 of the residencies in Connecticut.

“The one thing I want to share with you is that what's in these letters is less important than the people," said Dr. Steve Paik, associate dean for student affairs and admissions and an associate professor of medical sciences. "We're really proud of all that you've accomplished and  the real values that each of you will bring to each residency program and training program.”

The courage to dream

Gustavo Porto doesn’t remember much about leaving Brazil to come to Connecticut. He was only 16 months old, after all. But the sacrifices of his parents, Alessandra and Arnaldo, remain his most precious gift, the touchstone he carries within.

“We settled in Newtown and that’s where I grew up. My parents were working day and night for the first part of my childhood,” said Porto, who matched with an emergency medicine residency at Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital. “My father rarely saw me because he worked the night shift, and my mom worked the day shift. Fortunately, my father's schedule changed pretty quickly.”

Despite every effort to give their son — and later, their daughter, Gabriela — every advantage, the family’s immigration status remained a pressing issue.

“For much of my infancy and early childhood, I was undocumented and uninsured. We made a lot of trips to the ER,” Porto said. “I remember my mother telling me stories about how I caught the flu one time and almost died from it because no one spoke the language.”

While Connecticut has one of the largest Brazilian communities in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, speaking English was another barrier to overcome. Most Brazilian immigrants spoke Portuguese as their native language.

Porto is eager to change that healthcare paradigm. Affordable, accessible healthcare should be available to everyone, he said.

“My goal is to work in the emergency department because that tends to be where a lot of the underserved communities end up going,” Porto said. “I was once in their shoes. Now, I want to give back to those who helped me."

As a boy, Porto’s mother worked as a nanny for several doctors at Danbury Hospital. Two of those families had children around the same age as Porto. Over the years, it became a lesson in assimilation as much as friendship.

“I was always there with my mom and the other children, so I grew up alongside them. Luckily, (the doctors) treated me as if I was one of their own kids,” Porto said. “So when it came time for high school and college, they knew I was interested in medicine, so they made it a point to get me into the hospital to shadow people and to get involved in research projects.”

It was right around that time, in 2012, that former President Barack Obama championed DACA — the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Suddenly, Porto was eligible to attend college at the University of Connecticut, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in allied health sciences.

“And when I became an EMT in college, that really solidified emergency medicine for me,” Porto said. “This is not the end of the road when it comes to challenges, of course. There are going to be many more challenges for me going forward. But with so many people fighting for me and believing in me, I’m confident I can make a difference.”

A few feet away Friday, Alessandra and Arnaldo Porto took turns hugging their son and his fiancée, Jessica Seltz.

"This means that we finally reached our collective goal. It required all of us to help me get to this point," Porto said. "This is the confirmation that I am in fact going to become a doctor."

Leading by example to improve healthcare options for all

Rommell Noche can still remember his first day at the West Philadelphia United Community Clinic, where he volunteered as an undergraduate student. Located in the basement of a local church, his first patient was the pastor himself, followed by a middle-aged mom and then a high school varsity football player.

“I was planning to pursue medical research until that experience made me reconsider my role in healthcare. I learned in a personal way that ‘health’ is an important part of people's lives and the foundation for a strong community,” said Noche. “And there are people who don’t have the access to quality care they deserve.”

On Match Day, Noche opened his envelope surrounded by his mom, cousins and Quinnipiac Netter community, to learn he would continue his medical training at UC Irvine Medical Center in interventional radiology.

“I am so excited. I’m just so happy to have matched at UC Irvine, and I’m really honored to be a part of intervention radiology. I’m stunned, really,” said Noche. “It’s been a lot of sleepless nights over this and to finally get that confirmation, that validation it’s really inspiring. I can’t wait to see what’s in the future for me.”

Born in Guam, Noche moved with his family to California at the age of five. After a decade on the East Coast which included earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, clinical research at Yale University and medical school at Quinnipiac, Noche is looking forward to moving closer to his home and family on the West Coast.

“Match Day is exciting because I'm the first in my family to enter medical school and become a physician,” said Noche. “All these years, my family has supported me through the ups and downs of this journey, and this day feels like a celebration for all of us.”

Through his QU medical school rotations, Noche first discovered his interest in the specialty of interventional radiology, which utilizes minimally invasive procedures and image guidance on cases anywhere in the body, from head to toe.

“It all just came together during the end of my third year when I did my radiology rotation,” said Noche. “I like how radiology integrates so many different parts of medicine from anatomy to pathophysiology to physics. I think IR is an exciting field because we are a third option for patients outside of medicine or really invasive procedures.”

Noche was active during medical school as a member of the Society of Interventional Radiology and class representative for Quinnipiac’s Council of Curriculum Oversight which reviews the policies and procedures of the medical school curriculum. Noche was also a volunteer with the Bobcat Community Health Alliance in New Haven.

“Collaborating with faculty and administrators made me appreciate how invested they were to enhance our education,” said Noche. “The role also made me realize my interest in medical education and teaching, outside of my clinical experiences teaching patients.

He traces his commitment to service and addressing access issues to his own family’s experience with the healthcare system in Guam, where adequate resources were not always available for those in need.

“My mission is to help work toward a more balanced and fair access to healthcare,” said Noche. “I've spent four years trying to absorb as much knowledge as possible. I’m looking forward to sharing that knowledge with my patients as we continue to work toward providing the highest level of compassionate care for all.”

Shared adventures in small-town family medicine

As fledgling Netter School students, Ryan Morris and Sammer Dia bonded over their mutual affinity for dogs, hiking and all things outdoors. Together, they discovered a passion for rural family medicine, drawn in by the long and meaningful patient relationships that begin at birth.

So when they tore into their envelopes Friday, the couple met their dream match: a shared assignment as family medicine residents at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.

"It just feels like a culmination of everything we've been working towards," Dia said. "It feels good to know it's set. The institution just checks so many boxes for us. And it's good for the dogs."

Morris, a Guilford native whose parents are both physicians, and Dia, an Army veteran who was stationed in Alaska before returning there to work as an EMT, met on the day they interviewed for the Quinnipiac School of Medicine and reconnected as first-year students in 2020.

A relationship began to blossom when Morris and Dia were immersed in the more practical aspects of their QU Netter education. Their connection deepened at the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) for third-year students in northern Maine, a program spearheaded by Dr. Traci Marquis-Eydman, associate professor of medical sciences and director of the rural family medicine residency program.

Morris said Marquis-Eydman’s mentorship helped solidify her choice to pursue family medicine. With its proximity to the Canadian border and its small-town feel, Morris and Dia had a place to hone their craft and an endless supply of hiking trails to explore with Pinga, Dia’s English Shepherd, and Buddy, Morris’ Border Collie.

Among their proudest shared achievements was delivering a baby together. They highlight each other’s strengths as doctors and help each other identify and iron out weaknesses — a balancing act that will serve them well in Oregon.

“I’m more of a check-off-the-box kind of person,” Morris said. “I need to get my notes done, I need to do this and that. And in the hospital, Sam is a little more of the curious type. He might spend hours going down a research rabbit hole, and then he forgets all these other things he still needs to do. So we can sometimes meet in the middle.”

By his own admission, Dia can be too “even-keeled” for his own good.

“I think we complement each other well,” Dia said. “We balance each other out. Sometimes she’s just like, ‘no, come on. You need to get serious.’”

Morris is the daughter of two internal medicine doctors who initially wanted to “do anything else” before she felt the pull of a career in healthcare as a college senior. She graduated from UConn in 2016 with a psychology degree before enrolling in a postbaccalaureate program at Columbia University in New York, where she completed her pre-med requisites. After working as an ophthalmic technician in New York and Boston for two years, she was accepted at QU Netter and thought she’d study to become a primary care physician before changing gears.

Dia graduated in 2009 from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, with a degree in foreign area studies of the Middle East and North Africa. He then spent nearly six years serving as an Army engineer officer, interfacing with medical professionals as he traveled to Alaska, the Philippines and throughout Asia. He completed his post-baccalaureate studies at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 2019.

The enduring lessons of Dia’s military service, combined with his work as a medic responding to Alaskan wildfires, helped him seamlessly assimilate to the holistic and collaborative approach to healthcare for which the Netter School is known. And like Morris, he sees the appeal in forming tighter patient bonds than what’s typically found in other medical settings.

“We both have stories — you know, the typical small-town doctor stories — of being stopped by a patient in public, and there just not really being any boundaries,” Dia said, laughing.

Healing through the personal stories that unite us

For Jonah Cremin-Endes, the care of his patients unfolds in stories.

“I've always been interested in other people’s experiences,” said Cremin-Endes. “We use stories to paint a picture of our lives. In healthcare, I believe that understanding is vital to healing. I value that personal nature of medicine and guard the trust that is necessary for patients to be vulnerable and open to receive care.”

As a Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program Scholar and commissioned Naval officer, Cremin-Endes participated in the Military Match Day in December. Instead of an envelope, he opened an email that day to learn he had been matched to his first choice, Naval Medical Center San Diego, to pursue his specialty in psychiatry.

Despite already knowing his residency match, Cremin-Endes and his fiancée Sarah Hagen joined in the Match Day celebration on Friday to honor his soon-to-be colleagues in the medical field. For him, it’s those personal connections that continue to propel him forward in his career and never fail to inspire him each day.

As a child, the road to Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine was a familiar one, literally. Cremin-Endes often spent childhood days exploring the acres that are now the home of Quinnipiac’s North Haven campus.

“From the age of two, I was running around on this campus, which is only three minutes from where my grandparents lived,” said Cremin-Endes. “We used to come to these grounds when they were owned by Anthem and pick pinecones to make wreaths at Christmas.”

A Connecticut native, Cremin-Endes earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Notre Dame. His time there included participating in research to study elevated lead levels in children near South Bend.

After graduation, he dedicated a year of service in Baltimore as a volunteer in the Bon Secours Health System dialysis unit where he witnessed first-hand the importance of understanding a patient’s community to provide the most effective care.

He credits both Quinnipiac and the Navy for a wide range of experiences that exposed him to people from different backgrounds, furthering his interest in providing personalized compassionate healthcare. Throughout his training, Cremin-Endes has learned that one of his most valuable skills is listening. It is one of the reasons he chose the specialty of psychiatry.

“My family and I personally experienced the kind of care and relief the health care system can provide when my Aunt Maggie was diagnosed with cancer. We felt she was heard by her providers,” said Cremin-Endes. “That profound level of comfort during a challenging time is something that drew me into the field of medicine. It’s what I hope to offer my own patients.”

For Cremin-Endes, providing that same level of compassionate care is his way of honoring all of the people who have supported him in his journey and entrusted him with their stories along the way.

Running toward challenging yet rewarding patient relationships

It takes roughly 40,000 steps to run the 26.2 miles in April’s Boston Marathon. Hannah Lahey will be guided for every single one of them by the memory of her late father, Bobby — from the start in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to the emotional finish in Kenmore Square, in the shadow of historic Fenway Park.

Friday offered a glimpse of those emotions when Lahey — a native of North Andover, Massachusetts, and the proud middle child of Karen and Bobby Lahey — opened her Match Day envelope to reveal a residency in neurology at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, one of the country's foremost cancer treatment and research institutions.

"I was getting emotional even before I even opened it, and it's just such a surreal feeling because you work towards this goal for — for me it feels like the better half of my life," said Lahey, who has raised over $11,000 in support of the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge. "I've known since high school that I wanted to be a neurologist, and now I get to train at my dream institution. It's an amazing feeling when all of your hard work pays off."

Bobby Lahey died in November 2021 after a three-year battle with stage 4 lung cancer. Those three years were made possible by advancements in cancer research and a team of compassionate caregivers with whom the family formed a kind of “therapeutic alliance” to help them “navigate through a really uncertain time,” Hannah Lahey said.

It was then that Lahey developed a passion for neurology, with the goal of one day becoming a neurooncologist. Friends and classmates have wondered how she could choose a professional path that doesn’t always have the most “optimistic outcomes,” she said. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I think that that was kind of the light bulb moment for me, that neurology is definitely what I want to do,” Lahey said. “I think a lot of people shy away from neurology because of the uncertainty. And I think that that's when patients really need us most. You can really get to the core of who a person is and get to know them and what their values are. You get bonded by this super vulnerable experience.”

A 2016 graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where she majored in behavioral science, Lahey joined the Netter School in 2020, the same year she ran a makeshift Boston Marathon route in September with her parents rooting her on.

Friday’s match capped an eventful week in an eventful year for Lahey. She found out from a former colleague at UMass Medical School that the systemic gene therapies she helped develop for patients with Tay-Sachs disease — an inherited neurological disease found in babies that disproportionately affects the Ashkenazi Jewish population — will be in clinical trials by the end of the year. After the marathon, it’s a full sprint to her wedding in June. 

“It’s Match Day, then one month later it’s the marathon and then in another month it’s the wedding,” Lahey said. “I guess I really am piling it on.”

Reconstructing the future

Okensama La-Anyane figures she was 8 or 9 years old when she discovered the search bar for Encyclopedia Britannica. Suddenly, she had the keys — and the keyboard — to unlock a world of medicine, science and endless curiosity.

“I was obsessed. I would just go and look up things for hours,” said La-Anyane, who will soon begin her plastic surgery residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. “There was just something about looking at all the medical drawings. Anatomy was really fascinating to me.”

It wasn’t until much later, after she had completed her undergraduate degree, that La-Anyane discovered something far more enduring than any search bar — the humanity of medicine and the stackable credentials of gap years.

A decade ago, La-Anyane visited Ghana as a volunteer clinical observer. She learned about skin bleaching, a potentially hazardous process to lighten darker skin with creams and other products, some of which contain mercury.

“One of the days that I was there, I was in the (operating room) with one of the surgeons,” she recalled. “He looked at the patient and said, ‘I can tell this patient bleaches her skin. It’s so thin. It’s very difficult because when you suture skin like this or even make an incision, it can easily tear, and the wounds heal poorly.’ Afterward, I looked into it more and found out there wasn’t much research on skin bleaching.”

So La-Anyane decided to do something about it. Years later, with the help of Netter faculty and other researchers, she published a 2022 paper, “Observations by health care professionals about wound healing in Ghanaian patients who skin-bleach.”

Her journey to Netter also included working as an IVF coordinator in the San Francisco Bay Area. For 18 months, she learned how to counsel fertility patients from a safe space.

“Women are coming to you, and they're feeling so vulnerable. It may not be life and death, but it’s this intense sense of purpose to be a mother,” La-Anyane said. “These women are sharing their most intimate stories, sometimes sobbing, and it’s up to you to help them.”

La-Anyane spent last year as a plastic and reconstructive research fellow at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The appointment was as prestigious as it was demanding. She also benefited from her powerful plastic surgery rotations.

“I was seeing patients with life-changing deficits like breast cancer,” La-Anyane said. “It was such a deeply personal experience to learn not just what you think is best for the patient, but what the patient wants to become the version of themselves that feels the most authentic.”

La-Anyane will bring this empathy and perspective to her residency in Wisconsin.

"I'm very excited about my residency. This was one of the last program rotations for my sub-internship," she said Friday. "Almost immediately, they were really welcoming and wanted to get me involved."

La-Anyane credited the Netter community, especially Dr. Renu Rachel Ouseph Boatright and Dr. Cheryl Walters, for helping her reach this moment.

“When I was researching medical schools, Netter stood out to me because the mission was very focused on helping the community and having a personal relationship with each patient,” she said. “That humanistic approach was something I really wanted. It’s a big reason why I chose Netter.”

Boatright is eager to see La-Anyane make her mark as a plastic surgeon.

"Now, the world can see what an amazing physician and leader she's going to be, and it just makes me so excited," Boatright said. "It's great for the future of plastic surgery. She will definitely add to the ability of that field with inclusive care for all types of skin colors, from cosmetic procedures to reconstructive procedures. She's an incredibly bright, incredibly driven young woman. "

Military match continues family legacy of patient care

Derek Paradis can’t explain why, but when he opened his Military Match Day email in December, he knew he wanted to be outside.

Framed against the backdrop of Long Island Sound at East Rock Park in New Haven, Paradis cheered in celebration with his family and girlfriend, Caroline Kopfler, when he learned he had been matched with Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in anesthesia.

As an Army Health Professions Scholarship Program student, Paradis explains his call to serve as a “family value.” His parents met in the military and are both Army veterans of the Medical Service Corps. This May, Quinnipiac’s Commencement Day will mark not one, but two momentous occasions for Paradis. He will follow in his parents’ footsteps to earn both his MD diploma and a promotion from Army second lieutenant to captain.

“I was able to complete my training during the summers of medical school,” said Paradis. “I think the ability to engage in Army training at the same time was a benefit. My military experience helped me to stay organized and focused on my studies so that each task was not only done well but efficiently every time.”

His appreciation for those who serve led him to complete a gap year dedicated to veteran health after graduation from Boston College. Before joining Quinnipiac’s Netter, Paradis spent a year working with The Home-Base Program in Boston treating veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

“That’s where I really fell in love with working with the veteran population and helping service members and their families as they deal with difficult mental health challenges,” said Paradis.

He was drawn to Quinnipiac’s School of Medicine because of the sense of community and warm welcome he received that promised a level of support he knew would be beneficial during his medical training.

“Quinnipiac prepared me in so many ways, but most importantly, by making sure I stay true to the person I am throughout my training,” said Paradis. “I was drawn to medicine because of the interaction with patients and the healing nature that comes with those connections. I found a specialty that fits that dedication.”

Paradis explains that some people question why he would choose anesthesia, where the patient is unconscious, with a mindset on cultivating relationships. His answer is simple. While an anesthesiologist may have less total time with a patient, it’s a connection forged during one of the most emotional of times in a patient’s journey, when they are in the operating room.

“I don't think people realize that with anesthesia, you have a short amount of time to make a strong connection with a patient before surgery. That’s the challenge,” said Paradis. “Patients and their families facing surgery need comfort and an extra level of care. It’s that kind of personal attention that can help to make a significant impact on a patient’s procedure and recovery. That’s why I chose anesthesia. I find a lot of value in being able to focus on one patient, one family, at a time.”

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