On Friday, they stood at National Match Day, arms around each other, waiting to learn where Fernandez would do her residency training.

Maria Luisa de Curtis Fernandez kissed her daughter’s head as Jessica opened her envelope and learned she’d gotten her top choice – Jefferson Medical College’s duPoint Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. It’s one of only three pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation positions in the country that train doctors to care for children with movement disorders caused by conditions such as traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy and Jessica’s condition, spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia. The rare genetic disorder affects bone growth and causes small stature. Jessica stands 4 feet 2 inches tall.

DuPont was the hospital program where Fernandez had surgery last year to fuse bones in her spine. She’d fallen in love with the facility’s spirit and that bond intensified when Fernandez did a rotation at the hospital months later.

“They were so motivating and accepting,” she said. “They wanted me to be me. With them, I can help children gain independence and mobility. I can heal patients like me.”

Fernandez was one of 114 Class of 2018 Â鶹ԭ´´ medical students who matched into residencies Friday. Across the country a record-high 37,103 applicants submitted choices for 33,167 residency positions, the most ever offered. Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s 98 percent match rate was again higher than the national average of 94.3 percent. During their fourth year of medical school, students interview with residency programs in their specialty of choice. They rank their choices; residency programs do the same. Then a national computer matches the two. The results are kept secret until noon on National Match Day, when students nationwide learn the results.

2018 Â鶹ԭ´´ graduates will do their residencies at top hospitals across the nation, state and community, including Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Mayo Clinic, Orlando Health, University of Florida, Vanderbilt and Yale.

Ion, the College of Medicine’s certified therapy dog, even received his next assignment on Match Day. Ion’s owner, Christa Zino, matched into a surgical residency at Grand Strand Medical Center in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Her residency program director said Ion, a rescued boxer, can join residents on surgical rounds to provide comfort to patients. “I’m so excited,” Zino said. “I love surgery because I can fix things with my hands. I can be that person. Now I just need to find a full-time dog walker.”

Professor Roseann White, who teaches at the medical school’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, attended Match Day to cheer on her neighbor’s grandson and former student, Â鶹ԭ´´ med student Tyler Hall. He graduated from Burnett and is now headed to a pediatric residency at the University of Chicago. Hall credited Burnett School faculty with advising and helping him be ready for medical school and then succeed to he could get his dream residency.

White was equally thrilled. “To see him grow up and embark on his journey to become a pediatrician was very special,” she said. “For Tyler, along with a few others, to be one of our Â鶹ԭ´´ biomedical sciences graduates matching makes me proud of our program.”

Best friends Stephen Rineer and Richard Taylor both matched into pediatric residencies at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. They met during their first year of med school. They studied together, prepared for their board exams together. Their wives are now best friends too.

“We were competitive but in a good way,” Reiner said. Added Taylor: “I’m ecstatic. It means so much to be able to match with my best friend, because we get to move there and already have a family of friends.”

Kyle Cox spent his undergraduate years competing on Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s soccer team while he was studying biomedical sciences for pre-med. In May, he’ll graduate and move with his wife to Montgomery, AL, for a residency in orthopedic surgery at University of South Alabama Hospitals.

“I’ve spent so many years in athletics, I think like an athlete and I think that will help me relate to my patients,” he said. “Orthopedic surgery will allow me to help athletes get back on the field and help patients gain mobility so they can get back to what they enjoy.”

After opening their envelopes on the College of Medicine’s Tavistock Green, the future physicians went to a microphone, announced where they matched and placed a thumbtack on a giant U.S. map to mark their residency destination. Dean Deborah German told students that when they opened their envelopes, they were “opening the door to your future.”

Jessica Fernandez was the second student to announce her future. She stood on a stool to see over the podium at a Match Day crowd of hundreds.

“I’m Jess,” she said. Then the future Dr. Jessica Fernandez announced where she will go to heal others. And the crowd roared.

“He’s so soft,” said the 6-year-old from her bed at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando. “I love him.”

Ion is a certified therapy dog. His owner, Â鶹ԭ´´ second-year-medical student Christa Zino, brings him to the hospital most Friday evenings to visit sick children.

“To see their faces light up is priceless,” she said.

Despite the rigors and “craziness” of medical school, Zino finds time to visit each week – even during final exams this month – because she remembers what it was like to be in the hospital for months at a time. When she was about 3 years old, Zino spent a better part of the year in and out of hospitals while doctors tried to figure out what was making the Apopka native sick.

“The only thing I remember with fondness about that year is the therapy dog visits,” she said. “And so I wanted to do something for children now, before I become a doctor and can help in other ways.”

The visits remind Zino why the 18-hour days of school and studying are all worth it.

“When I think it is too much and that I can’t handle everything, this reminds me that I have no problems and why I want to be a pediatric surgeon,” said the 27-year-old. “I want to help children like the ones I see every week.”

Faculty at the Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine applaud Zino’s efforts, and there’s even a bonus for the school.

When Ion isn’t visiting children at Nemours or chasing his Chihuahua roommate at home, he’s lounging in the college’s Student Academic Support Services office.
That’s where he keeps office hours two days a week for stressed out medical students to stop by for doggy rubs or kisses before heading to their next class.

Ion during his “office hours” at the Â鶹ԭ´´ College of Medicine

For parents of children who spend extended time at Nemours for treatment of some of the most challenging conditions, the therapy dog visits are “magical.”

“She loves it when they visit,” said Katherine Vorkapich, Palmer’s mother, of Ion and the other 29 therapy animals registered to volunteer at Nemours.

Palmer is being treated for acute myeloid leukemia, also known as AML. The condition requires hospital stays of about a month after each session over a six-month stretch. The kindergartner and her family will be spending Christmas in the hospital this year.

“She just lights up,” Vorkapich said. “It’s a great change in the day. A lot of times, she doesn’t have visitors, so it is awesome they come in to see her.”

Nurses will stop Zino in the hallway and ask her to visit a patient’s room to help lift spirits, ease some stress before a procedure or simply hang out to help kick the blues that often hit when children are away from their homes.

Patients can also request a pet visit by tapping a button in the control console in their room. The console triggers an icon on the computer screen outside their room. As pet therapy handlers walk the halls, they know where to pop in for a visit.

“In my nine years at Nemours, I have seen over and over how our pet therapy dogs have a very special way of making children less anxious and often produce some smiles and giggles,” said Jill Mondry, director of volunteer services at Nemours. “They truly are important members of our care team.”

Ion seems to enjoy his job too. It’s a far cry from what destiny had originally planned for the pup, who Zino got from a rescue organization after he was turned over from someone out-of-state for not being aggressive enough to fight.

It’s obvious that Ion is a lover, not a fighter, Zino said.

“He gets so excited when his vest comes out. He knows where we are headed.”