Burrell students take next step forward on Match Day

Every March, at the same moment across the country, thousands of medical students learn where their lives will take them next.

The moment is known as Match Day. Envelopes open, cheers erupt and tears sometimes follow as graduating students discover where they will spend the next several years training as physicians.

For Dr. Giselle Irio, that moment arrived in an unusual setting — not in an auditorium full of classmates, but at her aunt’s house in Florida during the COVID pandemic, refreshing her email as family gathered around.

The message she was waiting for came from the National Resident Matching Program, the nationwide system that pairs graduating medical students with hospital residency programs.

The process begins months earlier. Medical students apply to residency programs in specialties ranging from family medicine to neurosurgery. After interviews, both applicants and hospitals submit ranked lists of their preferences.

Then the algorithm takes over.

Using a system designed to create stable matches, the program processes thousands of rankings to determine the best possible fit between students and training programs. Once the matches are finalized, the results remain sealed until the nationwide reveal on Match Day.

For Irio, reaching that moment had already been a long journey.

She grew up in South Florida, born in Miami and raised in Fort Lauderdale, and attended the University of South Florida for her undergraduate degree.

Medicine had always been in the picture, but her commitment deepened during college.

“I was always pre-med, pre-something medical whether it was high school or college, but in college I did medical mission trips and I did lead one to the Amazon in Ecuador and I absolutely fell in love,” Irio said. “I had to pay to go on this trip to provide the primary medical care to other people and I absolutely loved it.”

Originally, she thought she might pursue orthodontics. The experience in Ecuador changed that thinking and broadened her view of what medicine could be. Medical school became the next step.

“I actually ended up applying to Burrell because of my best friend at the time who was also pre-med,” Irio said. “She had interviewed the year prior at Burrell and she told me to check it out. When you're in Florida, you don't hear anything about New Mexico. She would have interviewed for the first class, and I was now interviewing for the second class.

“I came here, I got the interview, and everyone was so kind to me. I really loved the campus. It’s a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility, and I felt like the environment of it was very supportive. I would be very far away from family, and I felt like I would have the support I needed.”

She eventually enrolled at Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, where her medical training took an unexpected turn when the pandemic disrupted clinical rotations across the country.

“I had missed several rotations and at that point I was actually making up several rotations to be able to graduate,” she said. “At that point I had ended up back in Florida. I had luckily obtained two rotations in Miami. Since we couldn't do big gatherings at the school, my match day ended up being at home with my family, at my aunt's house with my extended family actually. I had to find out through an email.”

Even with those disruptions, the rotations she did complete proved pivotal.

At MountainView Regional Medical Center, Irio completed an ICU-focused rotation that helped clarify the direction of her career.

“It was in rotations that I solidified internal medicine,” Irio said. “I loved the hospital setting, the complexity, and during my rotations I realized this is what I want to do. Shortly after I started rotations, everything shut down so I had about seven months of rotations where I had to know what I wanted and I got very lucky because I had done my two core rotations in internal medicine.”

When the time came to rank residency programs, Irio’s top choices were two places she knew well.

Her first choice was Broward County in Florida, close to home. Her second choice was MountainView in Las Cruces, where she had seen firsthand the training environment residents experienced.

“I saw those residents learn and get phenomenal training,” Irio said. “The only way I will trade off the fact that I won't go home is if my training is superb. I ended up getting that Las Cruces spot. In a sense I was surprised, but I was also very grateful for it because how I got the interview for Mountain View was crazy.”

When the Match Day email finally arrived, the algorithm had spoken. She was heading back to Las Cruces.

What began as her second choice ultimately became the foundation of her career. Irio completed her residency there and now practices with CHRISTUS Health in Alamogordo.

Match Day is often described as the culmination of medical school. In reality, it marks the start of the most demanding stage of a physician’s training.

Residency shifts learning from lecture halls to hospital floors, where new doctors care for patients while refining their skills under supervision.

For Irio, the moment she refreshed her email in her aunt’s house marked the end of one long journey and the beginning of another.

Across the country each March, thousands of future physicians experience the same moment.

One message. One destination. And the first real step into a life in medicine.