Match Day takes aspiring doctors one step closer to reaching their goals

In March, the University of Cincinnati's Alyssa Steller found out at Match Day 2024 that she will complete her pediatric residency at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

“You get an envelope with whatever program you matched at, and you open it up and at noon on the Friday of Match Day,” Steller told Fox 19. “And that’s where you go. There’s no bargaining or arguing. Whatever it says on that paper is where you’re spending the next three to seven years.”

Steller comes from a family of medical professionals and is a former Cincinnati Children's patient, both of which factored into her desire to become a doctor.

“It’s just like so much joy, so much relief,” Steller recalled of the feelings on Match Day. “So much emotion of working so hard for four years and then this determining where I am going to be and knowing that I did it. It was the best feeling in the world for sure.”

“I think that we are so fortunate that we have a fantastic medical school just across the street,” said Sue Poynter, MD, professor of pediatrics in the UC College of Medicine and director of Cincinnati Children's Pediatric Residency Training Program. “We tend to encourage all of our students to be excited about pediatrics. It won’t be the field for everyone.”

Steller and the rest of this year's group of 40 Cincinnati Children's residents will begin their work in mid-June.

Watch or read the Fox 19 story.

Featured photo at top of Alyssa Steller celebrating Match Day with family and Dean Andrew T. Filak, Jr. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC College of Medicine.