Last March, the pandemic scuttled the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine’s traditional in-person celebration of Match Day, the day medical students across the country find out where they will spend the next phase of their medical training.
This year, UNMC officials decided that the show must go on.
On March 19, students will wheel in to the Falconwood Park Drive-In in Bellevue for a socially distanced Match Day that will allow them to observe most of the usual traditions under the open sky.
“It’s a little bit different, but it should be exciting and fun,” said Lauren Greufe, president of the college’s class of 2021.
Dr. Wendy Grant, the college’s associate dean for admissions and student affairs, said students were on their own last year when they received their match notifications.
The goal this year was to make sure that they could share the day, one of the biggest in their medical school careers, with their classmates and family members, some of whom are also having the next few years of their lives laid out for them.
“We felt as a team it was too important not to try,” Grant said.
But there was nowhere on campus they could hold such a ceremony, and no place where they could safely do it indoors.
Grant said she jokingly suggested the parking lot of the Baxter Arena. Then someone suggested the drive-in.
Falconwood Park typically doesn’t open until April, she said. But owner Brandon Miller said he would be willing to work with the college.
Each of the 123 students will be allowed one car to convoy them and their family members. They can sit in their cars during the ceremony or, if the weather is nice, sit outside in lawn chairs. Instead of the usual reception food, a food truck will be on-site.
“It’s all compliant with COVID and social distancing,” Grant said.
In the past, students have been given an envelope with their results and have gone on a stage with family members to announce where they’re going and place a pin in a map to mark their destination.
This year, the matches will be sent to students electronically at 11 a.m., Grant said. But students will still be able to go on stage at the drive-in to make their announcements and pin a map.
Greufe said she’s also making a video featuring students’ photographs and songs, another tradition. She and her fiancé plan to marry in May. They’re excited to find out where they will spend the next several years.
Grant said the organizers are determined to make the event happen, barring 2 feet of snow or lightning.
“COVID has been really hard on everyone,” she said. “But for them to keep moving on through shows a lot of their resilience.”