Childhood friends have special medical student Match Day at UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth
FORT WORTH, Texas - Match Day was truly special for two women at the University North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
It has been a journey of hard work, support, and an incredible bond.
Kate Russell and Madisen Siedel have been classmates since kindergarten. They learned the alphabet together and how to count.
On Friday, Russell and Siedel shared the biggest countdown of their lives with the big reveal of where each will begin their careers as doctors.
It was match day for the medical school students at the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
"My dad’s a physician, so I’ve always admired that. A lot of my family members are in health care," Siedel said.
"She knew from the very beginning she wanted to be a doctor, which is really, really cool. I did not know that," Russell said. "It really wasn’t until I started going to college and I found neuroscience as my major and I just loved it. I loved science. I loved everything about it."
Russell, now a proud neurologist, heads to east to Atlanta
"I’m so excited. I actually get to go back to Emory University, which is where I did my masters in science and public health," Russell said.
Siedel is excited she’ll be in Dallas.
"Baylor University Medical Center is where I’ll be doing my OBGYN training," Siedel said.
The two spoke about how this fascinating bond in education and friendship was maintained from grade school in Tyler, to different universities for undergrad, and from there, they said it was all by chance.
"Neither of us took a traditional route. We both had a couple years between college and medical school. We had no idea we were both applying the same year until we both showed up at our interview day," Russell recalled. "She was across the room, and I yelled, ‘Madisen Siedell!’"
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Future doctors from Fort Worth college learn their residencies on Match Day
More than 200 medical students from the College of Osteopathic Physicians at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth opened their match letters for residency Friday. The class of 2022 was the first in-person Match Day since 2019 due to COVID-19.
They began medical school together in 2020.
"We lived right down the hall from each other. Those first two years were pretty isolating, it was COVID time, so a lot of it was independent study," Siedel said.
Now, to begin their medical residencies, they will have to separate.
"We’re already planning long weekend trips. We’re already deciding, we’re going to pick out what weekends we’re going to come see each other," they said.