Page 51 - WesternU View Summer 2019

COMP-Northwest Match Day; photos courtesy of Karl Maasdam

have been a lot of hard, good work that brought me here.” “This feeling is just surreal,” Rogers said, shortly after
opening his envelope. “There was a lot of built up,
Gutierrez said she wants to get to know her patients, their
anxiety, worry and stress getting to this moment. Going in
families and the community they live in, which is why she
as couples’ match – and my fiancé Alexis going into
chose family medicine.
dermatology – it just felt like a lot of odds were stacked
“I love primary care because I will be able to take care of up against us, but we did it.” Buffington landed a
everybody I see,” she said. “My whole drive and goal in dermatology residency, and Rogers will go into family
life is to build relationships. In primary care you have medicine.
continuity of care. You get to know the whole family,
“I’m just really excited to know where we are going, and
which is why I love family medicine.”
that we are going together,” Buffington said. “The
Approximately two-thirds of couples’ match was stressful, but it
COMP-Northwest’s Class of 2019 was also nice to have someone to
calls the Pacific Northwest home, go through the process with.”
and faculty and staff were happy to Of the 104 graduating
learn students landed residency COMP moved its Match Day event
programs in Oregon, Washington, seniors in Lebanon, to an off-campus site to
and Idaho. Thirty-four students will accommodate more guests,
complete their training in the 58 matched into illustrating how much it has grown
in recent years. More than 600
Pacific Northwest, which doubles
the number staying in the region primary care. friends, family members, students
and COMP faculty and staff were
from last year’s Match. Of the 34,
present to celebrate this huge
half of those students will train in
milestone.
Oregon: nine in Portland hospitals,
seven at Good Samaritan Regional Center in Corvallis, “Match Day is such an important event for our students,”
and one in Klamath Falls. said COMP Associate Dean Edward Barnes, MD, FACP.
“They value this day as highly as they value
“This class has done exceptionally well,” said Lisa
Guenther, MD, director of WesternU COMP-Northwest’s Commencement. They really wanted to share this day
Office of Career and Professional Development. “We have with their families. Moving to an offsite venue where
students that are running the gamut of really amazing we’re looking at probably about 600 attendees is such a
opportunities. We have students that will be going out and big deal for our students. They’ve asked for it and we’ve
serving on the front lines in primary care and in rural been able to accommodate them this year, and I think it
n
populations. We have students going to top notch academic was a very successful event.”
universities who have not accepted DO students before.” watch Match Day Pomona on youtube:
WesternU COMP-Northwest Class of 2019 President https://youtu.be/yIQDyLAMO0A
Dylan Rogers and classmate Alexis Buffington went
through a couples’ match and will be headed to Beaumont
Health in Michigan.

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