Aspiring surgeons like Brown medical student Tynan Friend will likely depend on specialists like Walsh as they transition into their chosen specialty. Friend said he fell in love with the “vibe” of the operating room — the blend of teamwork, intensity and physicality. Friend worked for two years in global health. His sister, Olivia, who graduated from Brown in 2022, encouraged him to apply to the Warren Alpert Medical School.

“I started to recognize how much I love and find meaning in working with folks that are disenfranchised by the American health care system,” Friend says. “I wanted to be somewhere that valued a community health focus.”

Friend was hoping to serve his residency in Chicago near friends and family, and he’ll do just that at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Leading up to Match Day, he said he felt less nervous and more content about the potential outcome.

“I think that’s a testament to how well this school prepares us for success every year,” Friend said.

Silas Monje, who participated in Brown’s eight-year Program in Liberal Medical Education, originally thought he would pursue emergency medicine. But when he sat in on a baby delivery at Women & Infants Hospital, his aspirations shifted to obstetrics and gynecology. 

“That changed my entire path through school,” Monje said. “I gravitated toward that and ended up doing more research focused on maternal-fetal medicine, and I became interested in studying high-risk pregnancies and deliveries.”

Monje, who grew up in Block Island, Rhode Island, hopes to one day work in an academic setting and practice in Providence. But he’ll spend the next few years just a few hours away from his home state, and his fiancée, Miranda Triedman, who has two more years of Brown medical school to go. Monje matched at his top-choice program, Columbia University Medical Center. 

“I think the teaching and research side of being a doctor is just as important as the patient care side,” Monje said. “Brown has been a great medical school, and I learned that it’s hard to beat the one-one-one mentorship we have here.”

Jack Sullivan, who is going into family medicine, said he was originally drawn to Brown by its Primary Care Population Medicine Program and its focus on community health.

“The idea of joining a cohort of people in a medical school while diving into different aspects of social medicine was important to me,” said Sullivan, who is from St. Louis. “Combining a traditional curriculum with health care education that focused on underlying conditions facing patients and building longitudinal relationships really drew me to Brown.”

Sullivan will be headed to Swedish Health Services in the Seattle area, but said he’s grown to love his time in New England. 

“I had never been here before my time at Brown, but it has been exciting to have grown to love Providence, as well,” he said.

While many students were nervous about what the day would bring, some students learned their matches months ago. Omar Karim, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, matched with Boston Medical Center with the goal of becoming an academic surgeon, though his choice of subspeciality remains open.

“One of the things that attracts me to general surgery is that you can choose so many different paths from it,” Karim said.

Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Karim worked as an EMT during his undergraduate years at Virginia Commonwealth University. While he enjoyed the work, Karim wanted to play a more in-depth role in the health outcomes of his patients.

“There was the issue of getting to a stage where you send the problem and challenges to someone else outside of an ER,” Karim said. “I wasn’t getting that satisfaction of providing definitive care.”

With his match decided, Karim reflected upon his Warren Alpert Medical School experience. 

“Everyone coming out of Brown started on different footing, but we’re all leaving having received this amazing education,” Karim said. “It opened a lot of doors that wouldn’t have been had I gone somewhere else, and I don’t take that for granted.” 

The Warren Alpert Medical School is among medical schools across the country that participate in the National Resident Matching Program. The complete match list for the Warren Alpert Medical School’s soon-to-be Class of 2025 graduates is available on the school’s website.