Due to COVID-19 precautions, the traditional NEOMED College of Medicine Match Day gathering with family and friends wasn’t possible this year, so a team from the College of Medicine and Academic Technology devised a plan to keep this annual celebration alive for our fourth-year medicine students via livestream.
More than 1,500 people tuned in to watch the event.
In keeping with tradition, leadership from the College of Medicine delivered remarks and fourth-year class representatives announced their Commencement Hooders, Gonfalonian (Samuel Doerle), and class speaker (Trey Moberly). Also according to tradition, students and guests were invited to donate to the traditional 50/50 charitable raffle via the @NEOMED-Foundation Venmo account, and student names were drawn one by one by a virtual randomized wheel, so everyone could hear where the students matched. In total, $2,609 was collected during the 50/50 raffle, with half going to the Student-Run Free Clinic at NEOMED and the other half going to fourth-year student Shaheera Sarwar, whose name was drawn last.
As COM leadership counted down to the official start time of noon for students to access their Match results, guests enjoyed a slide montage of fourth-year student photos, which also included song clips submitted by the students.
This year’s Match Day Ceremony was also home to a new tradition – a presentation of the Class of 2021 version of the poem “Gaudeamus igitur” (Latin for “Therefore let us rejoice”) related to the hymn by that name, sung at commencements for centuries. The poem was originally written by John Stone, M.D., for the graduating class of 1982 at Emory University and has been adapted by classes since. The NEOMED College of Medicine Class of 2021 carried the tradition forward by creating its own version, with individual students reciting individual lines of the poem in a video played during Friday’s Match Day Ceremony.
Watch The Pulse for more details and a full list of this year’s matches.
-Submitted by Harmony Stanger, M.B.A., assistant director of Student Affairs, College of Medicine