On Friday, she learned that her medical education will continue at one of the top children’s hospitals in the country — Children’s National in Washington, D.C.

Clarke was one of 85 students at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine who learned of their residency placements through the National Resident Matching Program. Members of the Class of 2019 were among the 44,600 medical students applying for 35,000 residencies in The Match, which uses a computer algorithm to produce a destination and a discipline for the next three or more years.

Overall, the medical students matched with residency programs across the country, including Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University, New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University, Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Ohio State University Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center, along with the School of Medicine’s Connecticut affiliates Middlesex Health, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, and St. Vincent’s Medical Center.

The students matched in 19 disciplines, including family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, internal medicine and neurology. The residencies are in 25 states and the District of Columbia.

For Dr. Bruce Koeppen, founding dean of the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, Match Day is framed by a growing reputation for producing students who are well trained, compassionate and collaborative.

“Today is a special day that marks the transition from student to doctor,” Koeppen said. “Our students are fully prepared to practice patient-centered care, and share their knowledge and compassion with those students who follow them.”

Before Match Day, Clarke said the best day of her life was finding out that she got in to the Quinnipiac medical school.

“The faculty teach us to look at patients as a whole and not focus on just one problem to fix,” she said.

Clarke singled out her MeSH preceptor, pediatrician Richard Geller, for preparing her well and described Dr. Robert Bona, Netter professor of medical sciences, as “someone who is incredibly smart. I did so well in my rotations because of his teaching.” She appreciated both doctors for their sense of humor. “In pediatrics, life can be sad, but humor and lightness is incredibly therapeutic.”

Arti Bhuken, MD ’19, matched to a residency in family medicine at Middlesex Health. Her father accompanied her to Match Day while her mother traveled to Virginia to attend the Match Day festivities for Arti’s twin sister, Akta, who will train in family medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical in Portsmouth.

Kaitlin Renkosiak, MD ’19, is headed to Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center for an OB-GYN residency — her first choice. She did her rotation there in that specialty and enjoyed the staff very much. “I found that I liked helping women at some of the most intimate moments in their lives, from being the front line person bringing life into the world to helping women with post-reproductive health challenges.”

She is especially interested in post-menopausal disorders and in surgeries that involve pelvic reconstruction. “Surgery involves being detailed and focused, and I find the operating room to be calming,” she said. She is also looking forward to mentoring future Netter students there.

Marisa Goshorn, MD ’19, and Colin Beals-Reid, MD ’19, were among 10 School of Medicine couples who participated in the couples match. Goshorn matched with an OB-GYN residency at Bridgeport Hospital and Beals-Reid matched with an anesthesiology residency at Yale New Haven.

“It’s so different from undergrad because this just feels like such an accomplishment. It was hard. It was absolutely hard,” Goshorn said. “But we did it!”

Beals-Reid likened the wave of emotions to getting in to Netter at the beginning of this journey.

“The feeling I had opening the envelope was exactly how I felt when I got the email telling me that I got into Netter,” Beals-Reid said. “This is the first place where we were both accepted for med school.”

Another couple, Zachary Patinkin, MD ’19, and Eleanor Stein, MD ’19, also matched Friday. Patinkin matched with an OB-GYN residency at the University of Rochester in New York, and Stein matched with a psychiatry residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio.

“It has been nice to have gone through the same things, and we’ve grown and developed together,” Stein said. “The only way to approach this process is to see what happens and go with it.”

Joseph Devlin, MD ’19, matched with a surgical residency at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., not far from his home in Maryland. Devlin, who celebrated his 27th birthday Friday, has studied at Netter through a full scholarship from the U.S. Air Force.

“Life doesn’t get better than this. I’m so happy,” said Devlin, in a wonderfully raspy voice after all the shouting and crying. “I wasn’t nervous until I woke up this morning. I had a nightmare last night that something went wrong and I got disqualified from matching. I woke up in a sweat, but now it feels like I’m dreaming. I couldn’t be happier.”

Devlin is eager to start the next chapter of his journey. “It will be an honor to serve my country doing what I want to do with my career,” said Devlin, who will serve six or seven years in the Air Force after he completes his medical training.

“I was interviewing at one institution — one of the top-tier programs in the country — and the program director said she would always take a Netter student,” Devlin said. “She said the best student intern they had — without comparison — was from Netter.”

Living in the moment

Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine