16 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Match Day spotlights hopes,
dreams and next stops in
By Audrey Post FSU College of Medicine medical training
Amanda and Tamara Raymond have been through a lot together. From their premature birth to their undergraduate days as pre-med students at the University of Florida, the Loxahatchee twins have always been in sync.
Their bond held strong as they were admitted to the Bridge to Clinical Medicine master’ s program at the Florida State University College of Medicine in 2020, then to the M. D. Class of 2025 the next year. With the Fort Pierce Regional Campus the closest one to their hometown, they wanted – and got – assigned there for their final two years of clinical studies.
Asked whether they do everything together, they answered in unison,“ Pretty much!”
But would they be together through residency, the next step in their medical education after their May 17, 2025, graduation? On Match Day 2025, they got the answer they were hoping for, matching with the FSU Internal Medicine Residency Program at Cape Coral Hospital in southwest Florida.
“ We both ranked it our first choice,” Amanda said.“ We were hoping,” Tamara added.
Held the third Friday in March each year, Match Day is when fourth-year medical students across the country hear“ open your envelopes” at 12 noon( ET) and simultaneously learn where they will spend the next few years. At FSU, College of Medicine Dean Alma Littles, M. D., spoke the magic words, which sparked several minutes of whooping and hollering.
Photo: The Raymond twins pose for a photo after they matched together.