University of Toledo medical students celebrate Match Day

Fourth-year medical students at the University of Toledo grab their envelopes containing their residency placements during the annual Match Day ceremony at the Stranahan Great Hall Friday, March 16, 2017 in Toledo.

The Blade/Dave Zapotosky
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The crowded room inside the Stranahan Theater Great Hall bubbled with excitement as the clock approached noon.

Students hovered around a table, eyeing the sealed envelopes that determine their fate. It was Match Day when fourth-year medical students learn where they will complete their post-medical school training, known as residencies, for the next several years.

Latima Collis of Detroit, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Toledo, left, celebrates with new fiance Andrew Anamanya of Washington DC, after getting engaged and learning her residency placement.

Latima Collins opened her envelope amid screams and jubilation from her friends and family surrounding her.

But the 26-year-old University of Toledo medical student never expected what happened next: Ms. Collins’ boyfriend of three and a half years, Andrew Anamanya, dropped to one knee and asked for her hand in marriage.

She said yes.

“It’s like the best day of my life,” said Ms. Collins as tears streamed down her face.

She will be entering the obstetrics-gynecology residency program at the University of Pittsburgh.

Grace Malthie, 26, hugged her 3-year-old daughter upon realizing she was matched with the radiology department at the University Hospitals of Cleveland, her first choice.

“I mean I’ve been dreaming of this day,” she said. “Anytime everything would get hard I would just picture being here with my daughter on match day and just finding out where I would be.”

Ms. Malthie has family in Cleveland and with her now working there she will have more help taking care of her daughter.

“She’s grown up with me in medical school,” she said. “I’m a single mom. It’s been really tough, to be honest.”

Ibtissam Gad, 24, could only mutter three words when she opened her envelope and discovered she was matched with her top choice.

“Oh my God,” she said.

Fourth-year medical students at the University of Toledo grab their envelopes containing their residency placements during the annual Match Day ceremony at the Stranahan Great Hall Friday, March 16, 2017 in Toledo.

Ms. Gad, who spent her entire life in Sylvania and received her undergraduate from UT, hugged her mother and two brothers, who were present, in excitement. She’ll be working at the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

“Honestly the program was amazing, the people there were so welcoming, and it was a strong program,” she said.

This year, 156 UT medical students were matched to residencies in 29 states; 61 will stay in Ohio and 19 will be paired with programs in Michigan. Popular specialties included internal medicine, pediatrics, and emergency medicine.

St. Luke’s Family Medicine residency matched its first six residents for the maiden class of its family medicine residency. Four of their students were matched with programs outside of the country and the other two will remain in Toledo.

Match Day is a nationwide program administered by the National Resident Matching Program, which pairs graduating students and academic hospitals based on the preferences of both the students and the medical centers.

Contact Javonte Anderson at janderson@theblade.com, 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @JavonteA.