Olgert Bardhi will specialize in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, along with his partner Taylor, who is specializing in pediatrics.

During his time at the UF College of Medicine, Bardhi has volunteered and served as an officer with the student-run Equal Access Clinic Network, which provides free health services to underserved populations in the community. Bardhi also helped lead an effort to bring student volunteers into local emergency departments when needs were high during COVID-19 and lobbied Alachua County commissioners to institute a syringe exchange program to decrease the rate of preventable diseases in people with substance abuse issues.

He said he is looking forward to the challenges residency will bring.

“I saw myself liking all the clerkships, and ultimately, I felt the most at home in internal medicine because that’s where you can really spend the most time to get to know your patient, connect with them and have the greatest impact,” he said. “When we’re applying to medical school, we sometimes take for granted how hard that process is and what it took to get here, but we need to remember that it’s a privilege to be able to take care of patients. I think my training at UF helped me hold onto that humanistic aspect of medicine that I hope will always be part of my career as a physician.” – EM

Daniela Ramirez will spend the next three years at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill for a psychiatry residency, with the goal of pursuing additional training to specialize in child psychiatry and take on an academic leadership role.

The first in her family to attend college, Ramirez said she has received an outpouring of support from friends, family and faculty throughout her medical school journey. Her experience has even helped inspire two of her cousins to pursue careers in medicine.

Born in Colombia, she said she looks forward to being an advocate for patients during her residency who come from underrepresented backgrounds. Research has shown patients have better outcomes and feel more comfortable talking with health care providers who look like them.

“Being someone with a background that’s underrepresented in medicine definitely had an impact in me choosing to explore child psychiatry,” Ramirez said. “Mental health continues to be stigmatized and is especially not prioritized in my culture. I’ve had my own experience with anxiety, and the more we can talk about these things, the easier it will become to normalize them. I want to be there for the children who grew up in a similar background as me who need to hear that message.” – EM

Arianne Maya will complete her general surgery residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. She hopes to ultimately specialize in pediatric surgery, but plans to keep an open mind throughout residency.

As vice president of the Chapman Society, the UF College of Medicine’s chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society, Maya spearheaded a project to create a literary magazine using submissions from UF medical students, residents and faculty. The print and online editions of the magazine will be available in April.

She said Match Day is a culmination of the hard work medical students have put in over the past four years and marks the beginning of the next chapter in a physician’s career.

“It sounds cheesy, but I’ve loved going online and watching videos of past Match Days taking place and thinking about what mine would be like,” Maya said. “I am excited to train to become a surgeon. I was torn between pediatrics and surgery when I first started medical school, but when I had the chance to when I had the chance to rotate on the pediatric surgery service, I realized that is exactly what I am interested in doing.” – EM