Rite of Spring

After four years of demanding studies, research, and coursework, 142 Brown University medical students learned where they’ll complete the next step of their medical careers at The Warren Alpert Medical School’s largest-ever Match Day celebration on Friday. 

The festive event, complete with live music, a balloon drop, and a champagne toast, capped a grueling nine-month medical residency application and interviewing process. Friends, family, faculty, and classmates celebrated with smiles, tears, screams, and hugs as the students tore open red envelopes at noon to learn where they would continue their medical training.

As students waited anxiously to open their envelopes, Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences Mukesh K. Jain, MD, encouraged them to be proud of their accomplishments and to acknowledge the sacrifices they made to reach this moment. He thanked family, friends, and faculty for their support over the years, and said that such achievements rarely occur in isolation.

Jain also told the students that today’s results do not define them.

“It’s what you do with that opportunity, as it is the case in life, that defines you,” he said. “It’s how you invest in yourself. You’re graduating from a medical school that is known for creating agents of change, and I have no doubt that you will change the world in your own unique way.”

Students like Kendra Walsh MD’25, PharmD, RPh, know full well the twists and turns their careers can take them. The Wyoming, RI, native received a doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island, but opted to pursue medicine after a chance encounter with anesthesiologists during a pharmacy rotation at Westerly Hospital. The specialty complements her unique background, especially since she has worked as an inpatient clinical pharmacist at Rhode Island Hospital throughout medical school.

“I felt that anesthesiology bridged the gap between what I enjoy about pharmacy and wanting to be hands-on with patients,” says Walsh, who will complete her residency at her first-choice program: Massachusetts General Hospital. “It also features a bit of every specialty, plus there’s a huge variety of patients that I’ll be able to serve.”

Other students, like Tynan Friend MD’25, will no doubt lean on specialists like Walsh as they transition into surgery. Friend says he fell in love with the “vibe” of the operating room—the unique blend of teamwork, intensity, and physicality spoke to him. Friend, whose sister, Olivia Friend ’22, encouraged him to apply to Brown, worked for two years in global health before starting medical school.

“I started to recognize how much I love and find meaning in working with folks that are disenfranchised by the American health care system,” he says. “I wanted to be somewhere that valued a community health focus.”

Friend had hoped to serve his residency in Chicago near friends and family, and he’ll do just that at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Leading up to Match Day, he says, he felt less nervous and more content about the outcome.

“I think that’s a testament to how well this school prepares us for success every year,” he says.

Silas Monje ’21 MD’25, who grew up on Block Island, originally thought he would pursue emergency medicine. That all changed when he sat in on a baby delivery at Women & Infants Hospital, and his aspirations shifted to obstetrics and gynecology.

“That changed my entire path through school,” he says. “I gravitated toward that and ended up doing more research focused on maternal-fetal medicine, and I became interested in studying more about high-risk pregnancies and deliveries.”

Monje, who hopes to one day work in an academic setting and practice in Providence, for now won’t be far from his fiancée, Miranda Triedman '21 MD'27: He matched at his top-choice program, Columbia University Medical Center.

“I think the teaching and research side of being a doctor is just as important as the patient care side,” Monje says. “Brown has been a great medical school, and I learned that it’s hard to beat the one-one-one mentorship we have here.”

Jack Sullivan MD’25 ScM’25 of St. Louis, who is going into family medicine, says he was originally attracted to Brown for its Primary Care-Population Medicine Program and its focus on community health.

“The idea of joining a cohort of people in a medical school while diving into different aspects of social medicine was important to me,” he says. “Combining a traditional curriculum with health care education that focused on underlying conditions facing patients and building longitudinal relationships really drew me to Brown.”

Sullivan will be headed to Swedish Health Services in the Seattle area, but said he’s grown to love his time in New England. “I had never been here before my time at Brown, but it has been exciting to have grown to love Providence, as well,” he says.

While many students were nervous going into the big day, some medical students learned their matches months ago. Omar Karim MD’25, a second lieutenant in the US Air Force, matched with Boston Medical Center and wants to become an academic surgeon, though his choice of subspeciality remains open.

“One of the things that attracts me about general surgery is that you can choose so many different paths from it,” Karim said.

Originally from Richmond, VA, Karim worked as an EMT during his undergraduate years at Virginia Commonwealth University. While there was much he liked about his work, Karim wanted a more in-depth role in the outcomes of his patients.

“There was the issue of getting to a stage where you send the problem and challenges to someone else outside of an ER,” he says. “I wasn’t getting that satisfaction of providing definitive care.”

He adds: “Everyone coming out of Brown started on different footing, but we’re all leaving having received this amazing education. It opened a lot of doors that wouldn’t have been had I gone somewhere else, and I don’t take that for granted.” 

The complete match list for The Warren Alpert Medical School MD Class of 2025 is available online.