Video Transcript
Official Match Day Transcript | March 19, 2021
Dean Thomas Schwenk:
Welcome to one of the most important and special days in the life of physicians, and all those responsible for their education. This day is even more special – and more unusual – because of the pandemic. During the production of today’s event, we have been meticulous about operating under strict COVID-19 guidelines, adhering to all state and county guidelines in effect at the time of filming, including taping remarks in a way that allows us to not be masked. While today’s event is virtual, we know how hard you’ve worked to get here, so wanted to do everything we could to make it feel as personal as possible.
Dr. Timothy Baker:
Greetings. On behalf of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, including our students, faculty, and staff and community partners, we are thrilled to celebrate you the Class of 2021 this Match Day. Today along with your families, friends, and supporters we commemorate this milestone on your paths as tomorrow's physicians. We are so proud of you. Congratulations.
Congratulations Montage – UNR Med Faculty & Staff saying “congratulations.”
Dr. Melissa Piasecki:
Congratulations UNR Med Class of 2021. And now, it's my pleasure to welcome President of the University of Nevada, Reno - Brian Sandoval.
President Brian Sandoval:
Class of 2021, I’m very happy to be with you today!
What a momentous and joyous day for all of you.
There is no better time or a more opportune moment than the one before you right now as you step up and step forward in serving our communities.
It is so important that we all come together and support one another while we celebrate your accomplishments.
Holding Match Day virtually is definitely a sign of our times.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it points to how urgently all of you are needed.
As you learn of your residencies, our communities and citizens are counting on your professional guidance, your expertise and your humanity.
This is my first Match Day as President of the University of Nevada, Reno, and I could not be more excited and more proud of you.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have heard the refrain that “not all heroes wear capes.”
This rings especially true for your chosen career paths. It is only fitting that we honor you today with a “Super Hero” theme.
In a few short months, your white coats will be a bit longer … and your knowledge, skills and compassion will be your greatest super powers.
I wish you all the very best in your Match.
Congratulations … and Go Pack!
Dr. Cherie Singer:
As with the best heroes, your journey to Match Day at UNR Med started with humble beginnings. Many of you had never stepped foot into this building when you walked these halls as applicants just a few short years ago. During your interviews you shared with us your why…. Why you wanted to be a doctor, why you wanted to help your community, why UNR Med was the place to make that happen. We remember your why and also remember that you stood out from the crowd then just as you do today – even without a cape and cool gadgets.
Since that time, you have stepped into these same rooms with more and more confidence as you mastered your own special super powers. You have shared your time and experience with the students who have come after you, you have helped and learned from countless patients along the way. Many of you have helped shaped UNR Med for the future, leaving our school better than when you came here. That is why you stood out from the crowd and why now you will be going off to residency to use your super powers to do more good in the world.
Every hero has to have a sidekick. Batman has Robin, Han Solo has Chewbacca, Iron Man has all of the Avengers. I would like to think that one of your plucky sidekicks in all your adventures at UNR Med has been someone in Student Affairs. We have been there every step of the way, some days losing sleep with worry but always your biggest cheerleaders in the background and on the sidelines, making sure you have the right gadgets to get the job done. This has been a year like no other with so many unknowns and challenges and we have been honored to be by your side navigating though the pandemic to this day. Remember, the immortal words of the real Superman Christopher Reeve…”A hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
Celebrate today. We will be with you in spirit crying happy tears as you get ready to don a shiny new cape and accept your newest mission to make this world a better place.
Dr. Carl Sievert:
Let me start out by saying congratulations to all of you. It was a little over three years ago that you all wandered into the anatomy lab for the first time, some of you scared, some excited, but as I recall most of you did not know very much about what you would be doing for the next four years. It is true that you were all good at faking it back then, but you have come a long way since then and there is no faking in medicine. Thankfully, I know you have had great training and with all the bumps in the road that you have had to deal with you have mastered the art of swerving to miss the obstacle and stay on the road. I’d say, that alone qualifies you as a superhero, but now the real superhero in you gets to go to work. I know it is probably a little scary to essentially be starting from the bottom rung of the ladder all over again but I know you will all prevail. So, have fun today, and remember the first superpower you worked for and earned. Of course I am talking about Anatomy, and although I hope we never have to see each other as patient/ doctor, if we do please use your superpowers to give us/me the same effort that we gave you in bestowing those superpowers upon you.
Dr. Lisa Calvo:
Oh my gosh, Class of 2021. You made it. Match Day is finally here, and the moment is about to arrive. I am so honored to be able to address you all on what is perhaps the most important day thus far of your budding careers.
As you can probably imagine, today is an incredibly emotional day for us as well. Witnessing the joy, jubilation, tears, celebration and relief that comes with finding where you are to spend the next many – but trust me, very short – years of your training is an incredible honor.
As cliché as it may be, it seems like only yesterday we were all piled into PHS to talk about the importance and honor of the physician-patient relationship. Many of you started with no medical background at all, and were thrust into your short white coats and put into tiny rooms with community volunteers with instructions to ask them about personal and difficult topics such as medical illnesses, social habits and their end of life wishes. Then came history taking, and physical exams, and differential diagnoses, and clinical reasoning, and oral presentations and all the classic black-bag, Norman Rockwell doctor stuff.
As nerve-racking as those things are for brand-new medical students, you didn’t stay brand new for long. Growth comes through experience, and you have had a LOT of experience. And then, the more rewarding yet more challenging aspect – going out into the “real world” and having “real patients” of your own. You quickly acclimated to life in the hospitals and clinics, to difficult procedures, challenging patients, long hours and non-existent weekends, the long and complex operations and what for some I’m sure felt like even LONGER internal medicine rounds.
As fourth years, you have found your swagger. Many of you stepped up to teach those who came after you, working with Med 610, doing outreach, serving as SI leaders and taking first- through third-years under your wings. Seeing the development of you all not just as doctors-in-training but also as people, forged not only in the challenges inherent to medical school, but in an unprecedented setting of a global pandemic, is amazing. Having watched you all grow over the last four years, and having been on this side of medical school for the past thirteen, I can tell you: you are ready.
You’ll soon have your long coats, and will head off to the new and unknown. As with each new chapter, there will be difficulties, and dark days, and endings…. But there will also be many more successes, joys, and beginnings. Having seen how far you all have come from the nervous, brand-new short-white coat, how-do-I-put-this-stethoscope-on days, to where you all stand now, with poise, confidence and clinical skills on the wards, in the OR and in the clinics… I know that your potentials are limitless. Congratulations, and we couldn’t be more proud.
Dean Thomas Schwenk:
The moment when you learn your March outcome is quickly approaching. This is an event like no other, during a year like no other. In fact, your entire career as a medical student has been characterized by change, by the creation of a “new” medical school with a 50-year history and tradition, by new clerkships with outstanding new community and full-time faculty members, by the creation of new clinical departments in Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynecology, and by an expansion of clinical research opportunities.
Then came the pandemic. Clerkships were stopped for several months, classroom teaching went virtual, and you were probably certain that your career as a physician was ruined.
But you were wrong. Every class of medical students is faced with challenges – going back to prior pandemics (from the Spanish influenza to polio), to world wars, HIV, Ebola and more. You are entering your residency training at a time of enormous disruption in the health care system, disruption that has created enormous challenges for residents who are among the most front-line of all the front-line heroes in this story.
But challenges are just opportunities in disguise. In the next few years, you will learn more, work harder, sleep less and help your patients more than you can possibly imagine. The opportunities to learn, and to do good, and to have both happen at the same time, are just beyond comprehension.
And that brings me to the advice I have given to every class at Match Day for many years. The advice is even more true now, during the pandemic.
The Match results you are about to receive, on the one hand, have everything to do with your future career. The places you will go and things you will see, as Dr. Seuss said, will be entirely determined by where you Match. I would likely not be with you here today if I had not matched at the University of Utah and come West from Michigan. We fell in love with the West, and 10 years ago we had the chance to come back. Where you train has so much to do with what happens next, and next, and next.
But, on the other hand, where you Match has absolutely nothing to do with your future career, because every path you might take is full of possibilities. The possibilities are all different, but all wonderful. It all depends on you: How you take advantage of those possibilities, how you raise your hand when volunteers are requested, and how you find the mentors and advisors who will help you find your way through the amazing maze of a medical career.
So I wish you the very best, and I know my wishes will come true because you are all going to be extraordinarily successful. Your success will be measured by the patients you will help, the communities you will serve, and the ways medicine and science will be made better by your contributions.
Congratulations and best wishes!
Let the countdown begin.
Class of 2021 thank you messages:
Sally Leong & Joseph Thomas: We wish we could all be here together.
Sally Leong: Thank you so much to our clinical faculty for donating your time and your expertise.
Joseph Thomas: Thank you for showing us what we have to look forward to and setting such great examples what it means to be an empathetic and dedicated clinician.
John Rolshoven: Four years at UNR Med has made me so happy that I am a medical student here. The staff and faculty have been extremely supportive throughout our journey. There is no place I would rather go to medical school. We really wish you could have joined us in person this year, but we know that you will be with us in spirit for Match. Really want to take this moment to say thank you so much. You really made this feel like family, always put the student interests first and you really made a great experience for us and I am very thankful.
Lazaro Peraza: I just want to thank all the faculty, staff, and dean for being our guiding light for four to five years, depending on who we are. You guys have been excellent guiding us through these tortuous waters of the pandemic and not being able to do away rotations and making sure we are still well educated and well trained for our patients. I wanted to give a personal thank you to all of you guys for being there for us and once again being that guiding light.
Elizabeth Matley: Due to your role modeling and dedication to our education we are better physicians. Our future patients thank you and so do we.
Tyler Allen:
Hello everyone, as president of the class of 2021 it is my distinct pleasure to present this special award on behalf of our class in an unprecedented way. The Docere Perillustris is an award given in recognition of exceptional service to UNR Med’s graduating class. It is a great honor to present this year’s award to Dr. Brady Janes. There is not a more deserving recipient among us and we as a class wish to thank Dr. Janes for her efforts and care that extend far beyond what is required.
I wanted to share a little about Dr. Janes that hopefully illustrates why she is so deserving of this award. For background, during our second year of medical school, we underwent large-scale curriculum changes altering the way we tested, and through this, how we studied. At the end of our second year, we take our first United States Medical Licensing Exam; passing this exam is critical, and the score we receive plays a large role in what specialty we might pursue and where we might train for residency.
That year, Dr. Janes took on the new role of “Year 2 Block Director.” This meant she would join us for the entire year organizing the scheduling of lectures, creation of the new exams, and monitoring our individual progress throughout the year. This year was a drastic change for all of us: students, faculty, and administration. Through Dr. Janes’ tireless efforts and care, she was able to guide our class through this challenging year successfully while advocating for learning strategies that would benefit us the most.
Not only was she our Year 2 Block Director, but she became a member of our class and was routinely called our “Class Mom”. She would spend her time alongside us in lectures to see which learning strategies were most beneficial, and would later elicit our feedback to see what she could do to ensure that we were prepared not only to take an incredibly stressful test at the end of our second year, but that we were prepared to develop into future physicians and become the best health care providers we can be.
While I can continue to praise everything that she has done for our education, Dr. Janes deserves even more recognition for how she has improved our lives on an individual level. She has made celebrating milestones possible and memorable, along with the countless times she has reached out to us individually to ensure that we were just doing okay and managing the stress of medical school well. Dr. Janes is most deserving of the Docere Perillustris award, and I know that I speak for the entire class of 2021 when I say thank you so much for everything you have done for us Dr. Janes, and you will be greatly missed by all of us when we graduate from UNR Med.