Match Day becomes day of giving for Pitt medical students during coronavirus pandemic

Match Day is an occasion University of Pittsburgh medical students eagerly await each spring.

It’s a national event during which the majority of medical students across the country receive their residency assignments. The aspiring doctors usually gather together to simultaneously open letters that announce their residency training location — a pivotal step in their medical careers. This annual pairing rite is what makes Match Day special.

In recent years, Match Day has been a big party held at large venues like Petersen Events Center on the Pitt campus. The medical students raise money for the costly event.

However, as with so many others events scheduled during the covid-19 crisis, Match Day was done virtually this year. Students received their assignments via email.

When fourth-year medical student and class president Mara Rice-Stubbs realized Match Day was going to be a virtual thing, she decided to turn the medical students’ disappointment into something positive.

The money they had raised, some $11,000, was donated instead to three charities: The Birmingham Free Clinic, affiliated with the Pitt School of Medicine, which provides free health care to anyone in the area who is uninsured; North Side chef Claudy Pierre, who cooks up premade meals for single moms and children; and 412 Food Rescue, a food recovery organization for the needy.

Rice-Stubbs and second-year class president Shaquille Charles joined forces to make it a fundraiser across the medical school.

“Shaq and I were so tired of hearing about all the negative things that are happening and we just really need some good news right now,” said Rice-Stubbs. “I think a lot of people were devastated when Match Day was cancelled and so it was trying to birth something positive out of this. It’s who we are, to be honest.”

The medical students invited faculty to match their donations and raised a total of $25,000.

“To just see the donations that poured in and how generous they were, upwards of a thousand dollars from individuals, was just really, really heartwarming,” Rice-Stubbs said. “One of the faculty members said she was crying as she read the email calling for support for the community. She said ‘this is why I’ve chosen to stay in Pittsburgh for the entirety of my career.’ ”

Rice-Stubbs said knowing that the medical students’ impact extended to three really important entities more than makes up for losing Match Day.

“It would have been just a brief moment in time of celebration, but this really impacts people across the community,” she said

As for Rice-Stubbs’ Match Day match, she is staying in Pittsburgh. She was assigned to UPMC, where she will be involved in child psychiatry, her specialty.