Wyoming WWAMI students attend Match Day at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. From left are Casey Pikla, Andrew Quinn, Shaynie Bauer, Cale Hinkle, Trent Bronnenberg, McKenzie Stampfli and Hannah Mills. (Tara Brown Photography)
Fourth-year students in the University of Wyoming’s WWAMI medical program joined their peers from the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) Friday, March 20, and learned where they will train for residency. This milestone, known as Match Day, marks the start of the next phase of their medical careers.
Across the WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho), UWSOM students successfully matched into residencies nationwide with many focused on primary care specialties.
Of Wyoming WWAMI’s 21 fourth‑year students, four each were matched into anesthesiology, family medicine and general surgery; three each in internal medicine and orthopedics; and one each in emergency medicine, neurology and psychiatry.
Wyoming WWAMI’s fourth-year students, by hometown, are:
Big Horn -- Andy Quinn and Andrew White.
Casper -- Colin O’Neill and Tom Robitaille.
Cheyenne -- Maddy Prince and McKenzie Stampfli.
Cody -- Trent Bronnenberg, Aaron Erickson and Brayden Feusner.
Jackson -- Franklin Powell and Heidi Taggart.
Lander -- Ross Cook, Casey Pikla and Cale Hinkle.
Lovell -- Hyrum Hopkin.
McKinnon -- Brandon Young.
Powell -- Jenni Ebersberger and Hannah Mills.
Sheridan -- Caleb Hoopes.
Thermopolis -- Shaynie Bauer.
Worland -- Larissa Siirila.
“A huge congratulations to our students for their individual hard work and dedication to get to this point in their medical training,” says Dr. Todd Guth, director of the Wyoming WWAMI Medical Education Program. “Their success reflects not only their individual efforts, but also the strength of our medical education program and a community of support within Wyoming and across the five-state WWAMI region that helped them reach this milestone.”
Leading up to Match Day, medical students apply to residency programs at the beginning of their last year of medical school. In turn, residency program directors rank applicants, and a match occurs when a program accepts a student’s application. Match Day was developed by the National Residency Matching Program, a U.S.-based private nonprofit, nongovernmental organization created in 1952 to place U.S. medical school students into residency training programs.
“Match Day highlights the strength of the partnership between the University of Wyoming and the University of Washington and our commitment to preparing clinicians who will serve communities within Wyoming,” says Patrick Hardigan, dean of the College of Health Sciences. “We are proud of these graduates and excited to see their future success.”
