What is match day? Chicago medical students learn where they will spend residency

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Match Day is a joyous day for medical students every year. It's when they learn where they'll spend the next few years in residency as they become doctors and other health professionals.

The anticipation was palpable, as 170 UIC medical students waited anxiously to open their letters to find out their residency program match and their future.

That includes Adriana Cordova, a woman representing a fist full of firsts in her family.

"I'm gonna be the first physician in my family. The first to graduate from high school, get a bachelors, masters, and now, med school," Cordova said. "So it's amazing all my work has literally led up to this point,"

She matched with Baylor's Emergency Medicine Program in Texas.

At the table over, Ana Gonzalez and Benjamin Aronson matched in Chicago as a couple.

"Ben and I met in our first year of medical school. He was my anatomy lab partner and we were friends for a year, and then I realized I was in love with him. And I found out he was in love with me too," said Gonzalez.

She's going into an interventional radiology program at Northwestern Medicine, while he heads to an internal medicine program at University of Chicago.

"We are ecstatic -- over the moon. I literally fell like I'm in a dream right now," Gonzalez said.

Twin sisters Chiara and Gaia Santiago, who were born and raised in Chicago, matched to stay in the city!

"The dream is to one day own a practice together. We're both very interested in cranial facial surgery, pediatric surgery, within the plastic surgery field, so you know work together, help the kiddos out and we'll see," Gaia said.

Celebrations across the city as UIC, Rush, Loyola and Northwestern recognize the resiliency of their soon-to be doctors, who persevered through pandemic remote learning their first full year.

"We were facing the pandemic as trainees, as a class together with our friends and family. So we had a really resilient class and we really looked out for each other," said Divya Surabhi, who matched with University of Chicago Medicine.

The future is bright for these new physicians and it's clear we have an embarrassment of riches in our medical institutions right here in Chicago, with so many students hoping to match here in the city.