Students pick up residency

Michael Miller

For Desi Zlatanova, a hospital training residency means the start of

a new career -- and less money spent on airfare.

The UC Irvine medical student has spent the past four years,

between quarters, flying back and forth from Irvine to Seattle -- the

home of her fiance, Mike Hite. On Thursday at UC Irvine, Zlatanova

was among 87 medical students who discovered where they would spend

the next three to seven years of their training. When Zlatanova

opened her envelope, she nearly leaped for joy. In her hand was a

letter stating that she would spend the next three years training in

emergency medicine at the University of Washington at Seattle.

“We’ve been commuting back and forth for four years and waiting

for this day,” Zlatanova said.

Each November, graduating medical students submit lists to the

National Resident Matching Program indicating where they would like

to undertake their hospital residencies. On Match Day, held every

March on the patio outside the UC Irvine School of Medicine, students

learn if their choices worked out. Zlatanova had included six

institutions on her list, but she came away with her top pick.

“My palms went up about 15 degrees when she opened that envelope,”

Hite said. “It was a huge relief.”

Zlatanova and Hite were among the hundreds of students, friends

and family members who crowded the patio Thursday morning to hear the

news. After opening remarks by senior associate dean Alberto Manetta

and medical school dean Thomas Cesario, administrators drew students’

envelopes out of a bag and invited them to read their results into

the microphone.

Of this year’s medical graduating class, 69% are moving on to

training facilities in California. Manetta said the 31% venturing out of state marked a campus record.

“These students did well in a highly competitive year,” Manetta

told the crowd.

He added that his campus’ own medical residency program had filled

all of its available positions for this year and that many of those

slots went to UC Irvine students.

Among those accepted to the local program was Eric Hegedus, who

will begin training at UC Irvine this summer as an emergency medical

technician. His girlfriend, Carrie Wambach, also a medical student,

will study obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA. Hegedus and Wambach had

applied as individuals and as a couple, and got their first choices

in the former category.

“I was excited and a little shocked,” Wambach said. “It wasn’t our

first choice as a couple, but it worked out well.”

Classmate Myra Wong, who is also training as an emergency medical

technician, was accepted to the University of Rochester in New York.

The Ohio native, who went to high school in Hong Kong, will begin her

residency in June.

“I like the pace of it,” Wong said of emergency medical work. “You

know you’re making a difference, and you can see the results really

quickly.

“To tell the truth, I’m really proud of this class and happy to be

a part of it.”

As students came to the podium to receive their envelopes, they

dropped $1 bills into a leather medical bag on the table. When

administrators, who drew the envelopes out at random, pulled out the

last name, the recipient won the entire contents of the bag. Armen

Aboulian, a general surgery student who received acceptance to UCLA,

was the winner.

“It’s fantastic,” Aboulian said. “It’s a double bonus. I got my

first choice and the money.”

The graduate had a simple plan for spending the $87: “Buy my

friends drinks.”