As he sat among the crowd on Match Day, witnessing the joy that filled the air as students from the Class of 2018 announced where they would be headed for residency training, Dr. Hal B. Jenson – for a moment – enjoyed the view and soaked it all in.
“It was a lot of fun, it was exciting,” Dr. Jenson said. “It just seems like these first four years have gone by way too fast.”
Indeed, as the founding dean of WMed, Dr. Jenson was at the helm when the medical school was founded in 2011 and then welcomed its first MD students in 2014. Match Day – March 16 – brought with it another chance for him to witness a first for the institution as the 48 students in its inaugural class took part in what is a life-shaping moment for medical students across the country.
The festivities surrounding Match Day were a culmination for the fourth-year students as the course of their medical careers was determined with the opening of an envelope and they learned where they will spend the next three or more years in residency training.
When it was all said and done, every student in the Class of 2018 had matched to a residency slot in the Match, a nationwide process that has become increasingly competitive. Dr. Jenson said he took great pride in the 100 percent match rate, which is well above the national average of 94 percent.
“Our students have achieved what we wanted them to achieve,” Dr. Jenson said. “They’re on the journey of becoming really good physicians … As they prepare for – and take – that next step our students are going to become our brand, they’re going to exemplify the medical school wherever they go. Our faculty has succeeded in preparing and positioning our students to succeed in residency and beyond.”
After graduation in May, the 48 students in the Class of 2018 will depart for residency programs in 23 different states across the U.S. Nine of the students will remain in Michigan, including two who are set to complete their training in Kalamazoo in the specialties of Internal Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery. Those two students will join the 200-plus physicians-in-training in WMed’s 12 residency and fellowship programs.
“It’s wonderful to have some of our students stay here at WMed. Over the next few years I’m hopeful we’re able to increase the number of students who stay in our residency programs in Kalamazoo,” Dr. Jenson said.
The Match Day success for the Class of 2018 was all part of what was an exciting first three months of 2018 for the WMed community. In February, the medical school was granted full accreditation for a five-year period from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. Five years is the maximum possible for a new school receiving its initial full accreditation.
Now, Dr. Jenson said he is looking ahead to what will come in May when students in the inaugural class will be honored at an awards and alumni banquet, take part in a community celebration on May 12 at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus, and then receive their degrees during a graduation ceremony at Miller Auditorium on Sunday, May 13.
As they prepare to leave WMed, Dr. Jenson said he is confident the students will do well in residency and then post-residency. He said the feedback he has received from faculty at other medical schools across the country where our fourth-year students have traveled for away clinical rotations is evidence to him that the students are equipped for success.
“Accreditation is one measure of success but having our students going out into the rest of the world and getting that feedback about how they perform has been very positive. All of that was also reflected on Match Day in that our students matched to very competitive programs,” Dr. Jenson said.
After graduation, Dr. Jenson said the Class of 2018 will have the distinction of being WMed’s first medical student alumni, joining the decades of alumni resident physicians from the medical school.
“We welcome our students to come back and stay connected with us,” Dr. Jenson said. “At some point down the road, we’ll start talking about a reunion for our medical students and that will be another first.”
For now, the students are in the final stages of completing the fourth-year curriculum at the medical school. Then, next month, they will be on hand for the community open house and be honored at graduation. Both the community open house and graduation are open to the public.
The community open house is scheduled for 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus with comments at 2:00 p.m. Graduation will be the following day from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Miller Auditorium.
“Graduation will be the end of the initial cycle for us as an institution and with that we graduate from being a new school,” Dr. Jenson said. “The students are growing up and moving on. We, as an institution, are growing up, as well.”