Match Day at Burrell

On Friday, March 21, a group of 144 Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine student doctors and their families gathered at New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum to count down the minutes before they could open envelopes unveiling residency assignments.

Match Day is a significant moment for individuals training to become medical providers. It is the moment when they learn where they’ve been accepted for residency, which is a significant step on their career journey.

“It’s like a draft,” Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine President John Hummer said, as student doctors, who had listed their preferred assignments, were paired with residencies through the National Resident Matching Program.

About 25 percent of the students were assigned to residencies in Burrell’s mission region, which includes New Mexico and parts of Texas and Arizona, Hummer said, helping to address a “shortage of doctors in this part of the country,” he said.

“It was amazing,” student doctor Rikelle Trent said, as she opened her envelope and discovered she had been matched with Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, where she will pursue a practice in family medicine.

“I felt I was placed in the right place,” said the New Jersey native who came to Burrell in 2020. “I love Las Cruces. I’m feeling that sense of family and community,” Trent said.

“I was overwhelmed,” student doctor Cedar Edell said, as he opened his envelope and learned he has been matched with the residency program at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque. Originally from Oregon, Edell said he is “excited to go to UNM,” where he will be part of the anesthesiology program.

Student doctor Anna Fuller said she was excited to “go back to my family roots,” after learning she had been matched with a residency program at Sutter Health, the hospital in Modesto, California, where she was born. Fuller plans a career in internal medicine.

“This is the culmination of what we’re about as a medical school,” Burrell Director of Career Development Michelle Devora told the students.

“I’m super proud of the students,” said Ben Matkin, director of Burrell’s standardized patient program. “After years of hard work and dedication, they have realized their dream of becoming a doctor. Now they are ready to make a meaningful difference in the lives of their own patients.”

After graduation in May, Burrell will have graduated more than 850 doctors, Hummer said.

He said 99.3 percent of them have been placed in residency programs, which is well above the national average.

Established in 2013, Burrell is a four-year, private osteopathic medical school located on the New Mexico State University campus.