Fourth-year medical students Katie DesPrez and Joe Wick met at orientation during their first year at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
“We sat next to each other at orientation and there was an activity where we had to introduce the person sitting to our right to the whole class,” DesPrez recalls of their first encounter nearly four years ago. “Joe was the person I introduced to everyone.”
The couple, who will marry May 12, learned on March 16 — Match Day — they will begin their married life in Sacramento, California, with residencies at UC-Davis Medical Center. DesPrez matched into internal medicine and Wick matched into orthopedic surgery. They were one of five couples matching together this year.
DesPrez’s parents, Roger DesPrez, MD, and Karen Carlson DesPrez, MD, are School of Medicine alumni, Class of 1982, and her grandfather, Roger DesPrez, MD, was on faculty from 1963-2002.
“It’s nice to carry forth a family tradition. My parents are great role models for a healthy balance between work and married life,” DesPrez said.
Match Day is the crowning moment of the National Resident Match Program (NRMP), which matches thousands of medical students with residency programs at medical centers and hospitals across the country.
Following Vanderbilt tradition, students and their loved ones gathered in Langford Auditorium where the fourth-year students’ names were randomly selected by Amy Fleming, MD, MHPE, associate dean for Medical Student Affairs. Each student approached the stage to a personalized song and a video screen of selected photos. After placing $1 into a fishbowl they received the envelope with their residency information.
“The 2018 graduates are an incredible class of leaders who have matched into top training programs across the U.S. and Canada,” Fleming said. “We are thrilled with the Match results. I know our students are ready to continue their dedication to patient care, scientific discovery and service in their new roles. It is always bittersweet for me, watching these students I am so proud of accomplish their dreams and knowing many will leave. However, this year an incredible 26 percent of our graduates have chosen to stay and train at Vanderbilt for residency, marking the highest percentage in the recent past.”
Fourth-year student Dago Estevez Ordoñez was born and raised in Honduras by a single mother, and is the eldest of 10 siblings. He attended Brigham Young University on a tuition scholarship.
“It was quite an adventure. I got a job cleaning bathrooms at 3 a.m. on campus and saved every single penny I got because I was not sure how I would continue paying for the next year. After two semesters I was granted an academic scholarship and later other scholarships which allowed me to pay my way through undergrad.”
He and his wife, Amy Nicole, have three children and he has successfully managed to balance medical school with raising a young family.
“I had a very supportive spouse and that actually made med school go very smoothly. Plus, it has helped me become more efficient with time management, as I have to also make sure that I have time for my significant other and for my kids. You just learn,” said Estevez Ordoñez, who matched into neurosurgery at the University of Alabama Medical Center-Birmingham.
Of the 77 students matching into residency programs, 16 students matched to internal medicine residencies; six each to orthopaedics and neurology; five each to emergency medicine, anesthesiology and diagnostic radiology; four to pediatrics; three each to otolaryngology, psychiatry, general surgery, medicine/pediatrics and urology; two each to neurosurgery and radiation oncology; and one each to plastic surgery, child neurology, family medicine, interventional radiology, preventive medicine, ophthalmology and vascular surgery. Three students will be completing their residencies in the U.S. military.
Karina Mendoza, who came to Vanderbilt from California, will be returning to the West Coast to do her internal medicine residency at the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals. She recently finished a global health rotation in Leon, Nicaragua, and plans to work in infectious diseases, providing primary care to the HIV population.
“I’ve been looking forward to Match Day for four years. I used to watch it from my office, and I cried every year. It feels so surreal to be going through it myself,” said Mendoza, who has been a dedicated volunteer and student leader for the Shade Tree Clinic, the medical student-run clinic for Nashville’s underserved population.
“Medical school has been the best four years of my life. I knew that Vanderbilt was my place and these were my people.”
Residency Assignments
Eftitan Akam – Massachusetts General Hospital, Medicine-Pediatrics
Emilie Amaro – VUMC, Orthopaedic Surgery
Alexandra Arambula – U. of Kansas School of Medicine, Otolaryngology
Jillian Berkman – Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Medicine-Preliminary/Neurology
Kevin Bersell – Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Internal Medicine
Rohan Bhalla – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary/Urology
Monisha Bhatia – Jackson Memorial Hospital, Internal Medicine
Ritwik Bhatia – Jackson Memorial Hospital, Neurology
Earllondra Brooks – VUMC, Medicine-Preliminary; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Neurology
Emily Chan – University of Saskatchewan, Orthopaedic Surgery
Alexander Chern – NYP Hosp-Columbia & Cornell, Otolaryngology
James Cook – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary; U. of Alabama Medical Center, Radiology-Diagnostic
Samantha Cummins – UT Southwestern, Plastic Surgery
Matthew De Niear – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary
Stephen Derryberry – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary
Katherine DesPrez – UC Davis Medical Center, Internal Medicine
Dagoberto Estevez-Ordonez – U. of Alabama Medical Center, Neurological Surgery
Kareem Fakhoury – Maimonides Medical Center, Medicine-Preliminary; U. of Colorado School of Medicine, Radiation Oncology
Jacob Fleming – Methodist Health System, Surgery-Preliminary; UT Southwestern, Interventional Radiology
Julian Genkins – UC San Francisco, Internal Medicine
Catherine Gigante – Northwestern McGaw, Pediatrics
Eric Hall – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Mitchell Hayes – Oregon Health and Science U., Surgery-Preliminary/Urology
Emily Holmes – U. of Colorado School of Medicine, Pediatrics
Jiun-Ruey Hu – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Jennifer Huang – Cone Health, Medicine-Preliminary; VUMC, Radiology-Diagnostic
Sandeep Jain – St. Louis U. School of Medicine, Internal Medicine
Jessica Kaczmarek – Baylor College of Medicine, Internal Medicine
David Landzberg – Emory U. School of Medicine, Transitional/ Neurology
Benjamin Li – St. Mary’s Medical Center, Medicine-Preliminary; UC San Francisco, Radiation Oncology
David Li – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Jaims Lim – U. of Buffalo School of Medicine, Neurological Surgery
Paul Loeser – Johns Hopkins Hospital, Medicine-Pediatrics
Cassandra Loren – Oregon Health and Science U., Pediatrics
Eric Mace – VUMC, General Surgery
Daniel Markwalter – U. of North Carolina Hospitals, Emergency Medicine
Tanya Marvi – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Sir Norman Melancon – UCLA, Psychiatry
Karina Mendoza – U. of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Internal Medicine
Jennifer Miao – VUMC, Internal Medicine
Kelli Money – VUMC, Medicine-Preliminary; BI Deaconess Medical Center, Neurology
Andre Morales – VUMC, Emergency Medicine
Zongyang (Tom) Mou – UC San Diego Medical Center, General Surgery
Whitney Muhlestein – Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Surgery-Preliminary
David O’Neill – UT Southwestern, Orthopaedic Surgery
Dillon O’Neill – U. of Utah Affiliated Hospitals, Orthopaedic Surgery
Chinoso Opara – U. of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Internal Medicine
Brian Palmisano – Stanford, Internal Medicine
Margaret Pan – Riverside Regional Medical Center, Transitional; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Radiology-Diagnostic
Alec Pawlukiewicz – San Antonio Military Medical Center, Emergency Medicine
Douglas Pet – UC San Francisco, Neurology
Julia Pitkin – U. of Colorado School of Medicine, Pediatrics
Yuxuan Qiu – Ohio State U. Medical Center, Emergency Medicine
Krishnan Ramanujan – Columbia U. Medical Center, Anesthesiology
India Reddy – VUMC, Psychiatry/Research
Saad Rehman – Massachusetts General Hospital, Internal Medicine
Brittany Schneider – VUMC, Child Neurology
Carolyn Scott – UT St. Thomas Hospitals, Medicine-Preliminary; U. of Virginia, Radiology-Diagnostic
Elizabeth Sherrill – VUMC, Emergency Medicine
Alicia Stafford – Medical U. of South Carolina, Vascular Surgery
Blair Stocks – Baylor College of Medicine, Surgery-Preliminary/Urology
David Stonko – Johns Hopkins Hospital, General Surgery
James Su – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary; Emory U. School of Medicine, Radiology-Diagnostic
Rafael Tamargo – UPMC Medical Education, Psychiatry/General
Margaret Tebbs – U. of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Medicine-Primary
Amol Utrankar – Columbia U. Medical Center, Anesthesiology
Daniel Valenzuela – VUMC, Surgery-Preliminary/Ophthalmology
Jacob VanHouten – Yale U. Griffin Hospital, Medicine-Preventive/General
Kaitlyn Weeber – David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, Family Medicine
Johnny Wei – U. of Kansas School of Medicine, Anesthesiology
Joseph Wick – UC Davis Medical Center, Orthopaedic Surgery
Kareem William – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Anesthesiology
Ashley Wu – VUMC, Medicine-Pediatrics
Deborah Xie – Johns Hopkins Hospital, Otolaryngology
Wu Yin – UPMC Medical Education, Anesthesiology
Brian (Holt) Zalneraitis – Madigan Army Medical Center, Orthopaedic Surgery
