Match Day packs extra meaning for 2 Health Sciences families
The Rubins and Chartrands will have added interest in the annual unveiling of residency matches on Friday.
Geoffrey Rubin, MD, MBA, chair and professor of radiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, plans to be front and center for Match Day when his daughter Elka Rubin finds out where she’ll be a resident.
Photo by Kris Hanning, U of A Health Sciences Office of Communications
Happens every year. Same day, same time, like clockwork. Third Friday in March.
Residency Match Day is arguably the biggest event of a medical student’s life. It’s when they find out where their next phase of training will take place. It’s also a very big deal this year for Geoffrey Rubin, MD, MBA, chair and professor of radiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, and Kate Chartrand, manager of student engagement for the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix.
Rubin will find out where his daughter, Elka, will study radiology as she follows in his footsteps. Chartrand will get to savor her husband Nick’s special day as a spectator for the first time rather than working as a Match Day organizer with the College of Medicine – Phoenix.
Just enjoying the show
Match Day is typically a blur for Kate Chartrand. For the past four years, she’s been decorating, directing and making sure everything’s on track.
Not this year.
She’ll still be busy beforehand with set up and organizing volunteers to ensure everything is perfect for the 124 students who will be matched on Friday. But at 9 a.m. she can sit back under the palo verde trees on the Phoenix Bioscience Core and take it all in for a change. Other departments took over main planning operations this year, which was perfect timing for Chartrand since her husband is a fourth-year medical student.
Kate Chartrand, manager of student engagement for the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix, gets to relax this year and enjoy her husband Nick Chartrand’s Match Day.
Photo by Noelle Haro-Gomez, U of A Health Sciences Office of Communications
“It’s really nice to be present for that day and not worry about event logistics,” Kate Chartrand said.
And the pressure is really off since Nick plans to study ophthalmology, which is one of a handful of specialties that notifies students about their residencies well before Match Day. If that feels a little like opening birthday presents early, that’s fine by the Chartrands. It makes things a little anticlimactic but no less special.
“I feel lucky to be going into the event already knowing where I’ve matched so I can just enjoy the moment stress-free,” Nick Chartrand said. “I’m most excited to support my classmates and celebrate where everyone is heading next.”
The Chartrands — still wearing their pjs and sipping matchas — learned at 6 a.m. Feb. 4 that Nick matched at the University of California Davis, one of his top picks. He’s from central California, and this means he’ll be close to his family.
A handful of other U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix students also learned that morning about their ophthalmology and urology matches. The early birds celebrated with balloons and a barbecue, and Kate Chartrand brought the traditional match sign for their social media announcements.
She predicts the official Match Day will be every bit as enjoyable.
“I've seen my husband put in so much time — just years and years of hard work throughout college and medical school — and this moment is the culmination of it all,” she said. “But I feel that way for every student, just being able to be a small part of their journey and knowing what they’ve been through. I can’t wait to celebrate their success, and I hope that everyone is happy with where they’re going on Match Day and that they just feel the magnitude of the accomplishment, that they’ve done that, and they made it.”
There every step of the way
Geoffrey Rubin was half a world away from the University of California San Diego campus on his Match Day in 1987. He’d just gotten married the month before and was backpacking through Europe on his honeymoon with his bride, Rhesa, when he fed a handful of coins into a pay phone in Rome to call the office of student affairs and learn where he’d study radiology. Answer: Stanford.
As one of five kids, Elka Rubin, second from left in the front row, didn’t get to visit her dad a lot at work, but she plans to follow in his footsteps into radiology. Also pictured: far left, Magellan, a triplet with Elka, older brother Rainier, triplet Guilianna. Riding in the pack on dad Geoffrey’s back is youngest brother Griffin. Estel, the au pair, is in the second row next to mom Rhesa.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Rubin
“We had a wonderful celebration in Italy,” said Rubin, who is also the clinical service chief of medical imaging for Banner – University Medical Group. “I remember very clearly sitting out on the street at a classic table in a big piazza, enjoying a celebratory drink.”
At the time, he didn’t even know which European city he’d be in on Match Day. This March 21, he knows exactly where he’ll be: as close as possible to the stage at Old Main to watch his daughter, Elka Rubin, who is among the 123 U of A College of Medicine – Tucson medical students taking part in the celebration.
While Geoffrey Rubin didn’t decide on medicine until later in his college career, Elka Rubin grew up listening to her dad’s dinnertime stories and knew she’d take the same path.
“Although my dad introduced me to radiology at a young age, it wasn’t until later in medical school that I realized it was the perfect fit for me, too. Now, I am ecstatic to share this career path with him,” said Elka Rubin, who ranks the U of A along with other West Coast programs as her top residency choices.
Elka Rubin, who’s one in a set of triplets and also has an older and younger brother, makes a point of stopping home for dinner with her parents on a regular basis.
“It’s been wonderful, actually, for me to experience medical school through her vicariously, because it's been a while since I went through, and things have changed a bit,” Geoffrey Rubin said. “So, it just has been a real joy to get to experience it with her.”
Elka Rubin said she visits her dad — and his top-notch candy bowl stocked with Hershey’s Nuggets — in his office when she can.
Geoffrey Rubin led the procession for his daughter’s white coat ceremony, and he’ll hood her at graduation. It’s been an extra special journey for both father and daughter, they said.
“It’s just marvelous to think back and have the perspective on Elka’s life from the moment of birth, taking her and her siblings to day care, picking them up, kindergarten, all of the milestones along the way,” Geoffrey Rubin said. “Being at this point and looking to the next stages, it's just such a wonderful privilege and a blessing to be able to have that longitudinal perspective over time. It's amazing for Rhesa and me to watch our children blossom into such wonderful and accomplished adults.”