Stony Brook University med students learn where residencies will be on Match Day

Just two weeks after saying “I do,” this Long Island couple met their matches; this time it was their placement in a medical residency program.

On Friday, Kenny Ling, 26, and Rosen Jeong, 27, found out their journey from meeting at anatomy classes while looking over a cadaver will include continuing their education at Stony Brook University Hospital.

“This is where our love blossomed. It’s where we want to stay to raise our family and build our future,” Jeong said. “So, I think that makes it more exciting and emotional, that we really can stay here.”

Their moment of jubilation came as 121 Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine students found out their medical residency program place as part of the university’s Match Day ceremony.

Typically held in March, Match Day represents a milestone in a medical student’s career as they find out where they will complete their residency and area of practice, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The length of a residency program will also be determined by the specialty of study.

Match Day is "really marking that transition from being a student to starting to be a real practicing physician,” said Peter Igarashi, dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine.

At Stony Brook, most students were matched with schools in New York, and popular areas of study included anesthesiology, internal medicine and radiology. Many of the students will stay at Stony Brook.

Outside of classroom achievement, Stony Brook’s Match Day ceremony speaks to the personal milestones in the training of a physician.

Inna Tabanasky Stern, 40, gave birth to her son during her clinical rotations. When she first had the baby, she admits, it was difficult to balance her three-year accelerated program with motherhood, but she was grateful for the help from the school.

At this moment in her studies, she has a future message for her 6-month-old son.

“It’s never too late to follow your dreams" and "being in the right environment and having people being supportive of you can really make a difference,” she said.

Being placed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is a dream come true for Lee Ann Santore, 26. She said at the Mayo Clinic she will continue to study lung cancer, a condition that has hit close to home for her.

“We have a pretty strong family history of lung cancer and the advances happening in that field right now are just mind-blowing. I’m so excited to be involved,” Santore said.

For Sarah Grosser, 29, of Babylon, being placed at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to study emergency medicine and moving away from her Long Island family represents a culmination of years of education and a change.

“This is going to be a leap of faith, but we’re all excited,” she said.

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Education: Howard University 

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith came to Newsday in 2023 after being a race and history reporter at USA TODAY, where she wrote enterprise and spot articles examining how the past shapes the present. Previously, she worked as the race and justice reporter at the USA TODAY Network of New York, covering issues such as criminal justice reform, housing, environmental justice, health care and politics. At The Journal News/lohud.com in Westchester County, she covered Yonkers, the state's third-largest city. She also worked at The Associated Press in Atlanta.

Honors and Awards: Criminal justice reporting fellowship with the National Press Foundation;  New York News Publishers Association award for distinguished investigative reporting;  Contributed reporting for Best of Gannett honor; Member of Table Stakes, a program funded by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and managed by the American Press Institute to transform local news.