Illinois Medicine

match day by Kevin McKeough photos by Diane Smutny Anxious and Excited L 12 | FALL 2012 AUREN TEVERBAUGH'S mother thought Match Day should be televised. "They show the college football players and basketball players when they get their contracts. We should be putting these guys getting their envelopes on TV, too. It says this is pos- sible," said Ida Teverbaugh- Turpin, as she and other family members waited with her daughter to learn where Teverbaugh would be receiving her residency training. Teverbaugh and her relatives were among the throng of fourth-year College of Medicine students—many of them accompanied by par- ents and other family members—who gathered in the Mid-America Club on the 80th floor of the Aon Center in downtown Chicago the morning of March 16. Teverbaugh-Turpin's comment captured both the importance and the annual drama of Match Day, when fourth-year medical students across the country—and throughout the college's four campuses (see sidebar)—simultaneously receive their residency assignments at 11 a.m. Central time. Almost to a person, the 144 students used the words "anxious" and "excited" to describe their anticipation of the life-altering news. Teverbaugh had more to anticipate than most, since she was applying for a combined residency in pediatrics and adult and child psychiatry, but she managed to keep a healthy perspective. "I've got a job," she said. "It's just a matter of where." The question of where the students would be living and working had particular importance to Mike and Lauren Decker. In ad- dition to being one of several student couples seeking a combined match, they were expect- ing their first child. "We've interviewed in 10 different cities, and today we find out," said Lauren Decker, who was 37 weeks pregnant and expected to deliver her baby in between graduation and the beginning of her pathology residency. Shortly before 11, Adrienne Segovia, MD Match Day stirs a mix of emotions ending in jubilation '90, took to the podium to begin the ceremony. "You have no reason to be anxious about your career," assured Segovia, who is chair of the college's Medical Alumni Council, one of the sponsors of the event. "You have been through four very challenging years at U of I, and you will make outstanding residents." After Kathleen Kashima, PhD, senior asso- ciate dean of students, led the countdown to the hour, staff members from the Office of Student Affairs began picking the names of the students out of a basket and calling them up to receive the letters containing their residency assignments. On opening the envelope, the first student called, Will Gibson, pumped the fist holding his The ecstasy of the 144 Chicago campus students was matched by 51 in Rockford, 40 in Peoria and 25 in Urbana-Champaign.

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