Future physicians at McGovern Medical School gear up for Match Day 2026

On Friday, March 20, more than 200 students at McGovern Medical School will find out where they will take the next step in their careers as physicians. (Photo by UTHealth Houston)

Shaped by experiences ranging from surviving childhood cancer to overcoming long odds and wanting to give back, each of these students followed a different path that ultimately led to the same destination: a future in medicine. On Friday, March 20, they are among more than 200 fellow classmates at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston who will take the next step during Match Day.

The fourth-year students will assemble at the medical school’s Webber Plaza to receive and simultaneously open envelopes at 11 a.m. CST. At that time, they — along with thousands of other medical students across the U.S. — will discover the residency training programs to which they have been matched. The event is coordinated by the National Resident Matching Program®.

Here are some of the many faces of the Class of 2026, our next generation of physicians.

Priscilla “Polly” Haff

When Priscilla “Polly” Haff was 14, she was convinced she would grow up to have a career in sales, the family trade.

Then she developed squamous cell carcinoma on her nose.

A freshman in high school, newly transferred to a different school and deeply self-conscious, Haff found herself in a dermatologist’s office every few weeks for nearly a year. She jokes that her nose looked like “hamburger meat,” but the experience left a deeper impression than any scar.

“It was the first time I really saw the intersection between medicine and human connection,” Haff said. “[My doctor] made me feel strong going through something that was really hard.”

That dermatologist became the first physician Haff ever wanted to emulate. She credits the experience as the moment her future took shape.

Haff earned her undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences from Texas A&M University, but it was the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic that cemented her calling. Rather than leave College Station, Texas after graduating, she stayed, earned her EMT license, and worked on the front lines during a moment when fear and uncertainty defined health care.

As Match Day at McGovern Medical School approaches, Haff says her gratitude for UTHealth Houston and its people has only grown.

“The most special thing about this place is the people,” she said. “There’s this shared energy of kindness and camaraderie. That’s the piece of this whole experience I’ll always carry with me.”

Sydney Keatts

In many ways, Sydney Keatts already had the most important match of her life. Her journey began in an after-school enrichment program that became a lifeline during an unstable childhood. When the director of the program recognized the challenges Sydney was facing, she opened her home and heart, ultimately becoming Sydney’s adoptive mother. “That’s my family,” Sydney said. “My mom, my dad, my sister, they’re the people who took me in.”

After graduating high school, Sydney delayed college to teach full-time in the same program that once supported her. It was a full-circle moment that shaped her values and taught her the power of giving back. When she decided to enroll in community college, she balanced night classes with daytime customer service jobs, later transferring to Houston Christian University while waiting tables to support herself.

Medicine didn’t seem like an option at first – not because she lacked passion, but because she didn’t think it was possible. When she began volunteering at a hospital in Clear Lake, Texas, Sydney’s connection with patients sparked a realization: Her lived experiences had given her a unique ability to listen, empathize, and make people feel seen.

At McGovern Medical School, she found unwavering support from faculty and classmates. During her time at the school, she served as an anatomy pedagogue and helped lead the Sun Protection Outreach Teaching by Students (SPOTS) program where she taught early skin cancer detection and sun protection in schools throughout the Houston area.

Now, as Sydney is preparing for a Match Day, she looks forward to starting a career as a resident of dermatology and continuing to give back to the communities that helped shape her.

“It’s so important to never forget where you came from,” Sydney said. “To be here, it’s magnified times a million. I’m so grateful. I overcame a lot to get here, and my family is incredibly proud.”

Juan Garcia

Juan Garcia was born at Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, a primary teaching hospital for UTHealth Houston, and grew up in a North Houston neighborhood surrounding the hospital. After moving away for the first time in his life to complete his undergraduate training at The University of Texas at Austin, McGovern Medical School was an obvious choice for Juan to continue his education.

“When deciding on where I wanted to train, I knew that I wanted to come back to the same community that I had grown up in,” Juan said.

Growing up in Houston allowed Juan to see the impacts that a lack of access to affordable health care can have on a patient’s health. He watched as members of his own family, who were visibly sick, could not get access to the health care that they needed. “Witnessing that firsthand inspired me and gave me a spark that I needed in order to hopefully change that experience, which I know is not an isolated occurrence,” Juan said.

Juan began helping make changes at McGovern Medical School, where he joined the Healthcare Exploration and Learning (HEAL) Program, which fosters mentorship and encourages first-generation high school students to consider health care careers. Serving as co-director for two years, Juan taught high school students basic science activities like anatomy and suturing skills.

“Having that experience to mentor the next generation of physicians and spark that idea that they’re able to reach the same goals made me very happy and also reminded me of one of the other reasons why I decided to go into medicine, which is to always inspire the next generation to believe in themselves and to believe that they are able to get the career they need in order to make a difference in the world.”

When he opens his envelope on Match Day, no matter where his letter says he is headed, Juan is determined to return to Houston and give back to the community where he was raised.

“I’m applying into family medicine, where I’m hoping to eventually come back to the Harris Health System and continue working with the local communities to make sure that I provide equitable access to health care for the underserved populations, but also be able to change the way that we address these social determinants of health for these communities,” Juan said.

Eloy Lozoya

For Eloy Lozoya, medicine is personal. It encompasses a patient’s lifestyle; it’s fueled by their excitement for positive change.

Growing up in Brownsville, Texas, Lozoya enjoyed math and sports. After significant injuries, he reevaluated his dream to play soccer professionally and decided to study electrical engineering. The puzzle of human anatomy eventually drew him to medicine.

“I was always very curious about the human body, how it worked, how it defended itself against infections and why doctors prescribed what they prescribed,” Lozoya said.

Initially, Lozoya approached the body like a mechanic approaches a car. He began his journey with surgery but felt that his relationships with patients were too impersonal. The human element was missing.

He found what he was looking for in the lifestyle elective led by Elena Zamora, MD, MHA. There, he interacted with people across the spectrum of medicine — doctors, social workers, psychologists, patients — and saw a holistic picture of care. He personally connected with patients. He saw care go beyond the clinic, like for a patient whose hypertension treatment began by improving their sleep hygiene at home.

“It was the excitement in the patients’ eyes, in their voice. They were excited that they were finally seeing change,” Lozoya said. “This is what we’re here for. This is why we study: to change peoples’ lives for the better.”

To be a force for that change, Lozoya hopes to match in family medicine at McGovern Medical School or Forth Worth JPS. In Lozoya’s vision for the next 10 years — aided by Abayomi Ogunwala, MD, MPH, his research mentor — he’ll return to Brownsville to tailor exercise, diet, and lifestyle education for Hispanic populations that lack sufficient health care resources. In doing so, he’d be close to his family, and he might also inspire other Latino youth to pursue a similar path, giving back to home and fostering a whole-person model of medicine.

Only a small portion of a person’s health is doctor’s visits and medications, Lozoya said. The rest is what happens at home.

Emily Peel

On Match Day, Emily Peel will open her envelope knowing her path to family medicine has been anything but traditional. A Doctor of Pharmacy who is now graduating from McGovern Medical School, Peel’s journey reflects years of thoughtful discernment, clinical training, and a deep commitment to serving patients across the lifespan.

Originally from Hendersonville, Tennessee, Peel began her academic career as a premed student at the University of Alabama before pivoting to pharmacy, inspired in part by her two older siblings who are pharmacists. She earned her pharmacy degree from Auburn University, where a pivotal internal medicine rotation reshaped her future.

“This is actually really cool,” she recalled of doing rounds with physicians and medical students. “I think I want to do this. I want a more hands-on approach.” After completing a PGY-1 pharmacy residency with H-E-B and applying to medical school, she was accepted to McGovern Medical School, a decision she describes as the right next step in her evolution as a clinician.

Her time in Alabama also broadened her understanding of health disparities. Through the University of Alabama Honors College experience, Peel worked with high school students in Marion, Alabama, where she witnessed firsthand the impact of low health literacy and limited resources. The experience reshaped how she approaches patient care. Understanding the full context of a patient’s life — from education to access to care — became central to her philosophy, first through a pharmacy lens and later throughout medical school.

At McGovern Medical School, Peel found a collaborative environment that reinforced her calling. “I feel like I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants,” she said, describing the support of faculty, classmates, family, and friends. Now preparing to match in family medicine, she is drawn to the specialty’s breadth, which she compared to beach volleyball, where players must master every skill on the court. Whether caring for pediatric or geriatric patients, delivering babies, or managing chronic disease, Peel looks forward to becoming the kind of physician who can do it all and meet patients wherever they are.

Kennedy Powell

Kennedy Powell is used to helping others.

Growing up she spent her free time volunteering for programs like Meals on Wheels, the Special Olympics, her local food bank, tutoring the youth, and passing out meals to people without homes in her hometown of Dallas.

When she was deciding her career, becoming a physician was, unsurprisingly, at the top of the list. “I love just being of service to people,” she said. “Growing up, service was very big in my household. I also really love science, and so it made perfect sense for me to become a physician.”

After completing her undergrad at Jacksonville State University, where she also played Division I volleyball, she began her journey at McGovern Medical School, where she continued to blend her love of volunteer work with her studies. One of those volunteer programs includes the Student Wellness and Resilience Committee at McGovern Medical School, where students promote health and well-being at the school by developing and implementing wellness initiatives.

Additionally, she helped coordinate blood drives and start a dance club at the school for the UTHealth Houston community. She also mentored premed students at the University of Houston throughout her journey to medical school.

“The dance club has been one of my favorite things about my experience at McGovern Medical School,” she said. “Having the ability to be able to bring more humanities and arts to campus has been a blessing.”

As her time at the medical school is coming to an end, Kennedy is reflecting on the guidance she received along the way that she says helped push her through.

“I feel like all the attendings and all the residents and everybody who I’ve had the opportunity to work with along the way and throughout my rotations have always given me pieces of advice here and there. All of their advice comes together and helps me go where I need to go. I will always keep those in the back of my mind,” Kennedy said.

In her envelope on Match Day, she hopes to find a destination that brings her back home to start her next journey as a family medicine physician resident in Dallas, where her family still lives.

Katie Abel

Katie Abel grew up listening to her parents’ stories about their patients while gathered at the dinner table with her sisters. Her parents are both doctors in Dallas, and while her sisters didn’t care much for their workday tales, Katie’s interest was piqued right away.

She had a feeling she wanted to go into medicine from a young age, but her experiences as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame solidified her career choice. Between years pursuing a science-business major, Katie volunteered as a counselor at Camp Sweeney, a summer camp north of Dallas for kids and teens with Type 1 diabetes.

“The counselors get a lot of training in how to manage diabetes, and they kind of help support the kids throughout the summer,” Katie said. “You really see a mix of kids who are recently diagnosed versus those who have had diabetes for 10 years. Both have a lot of struggles regardless of how long they’ve been diagnosed.”

Her summers helping kids manage their chronic disease led Katie to choose internal medicine-pediatrics for her residency.

“Young adulthood is a really hard time for people with chronic conditions. People have to switch from their pediatrician that they know super well to an adult provider,” she said. “I like the idea of being able to work with kids through their young adulthood into late adulthood and being able to address those needs for them.”

This Match Day, Katie hopes to see McGovern Medical School inside her envelope.

“I’ve been really happy with the education I’ve gotten,” Katie said, crediting Ariana Klein, MD, director of the medical school’s Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency program, with creating a positive educational experience. “I’m optimistic that it'll work out and I'll be able to stay here.”

Graham Brem and Winston Zingg

Graham Brem and Winston Zingg entered Match Day together as a couple with the hope that they will spend their residencies near each other, if not in the same place.

Winston, who was born in Venezuela and moved to Katy, Texas, when he was 11, was always interested in science. As a kid, he loved the movie “Contagion” and was particularly captivated watching the doctors work to get to the bottom of the fictional epidemic.

His scientific interests changed in college, however, when he participated in humanitarian work in Peru with his family in 2019, in between semesters pursuing a microbiology major at Texas A&M University.

“We went to a lot of isolated areas in Peru, and I helped with the pediatric doctors there who took care of the kids in the villages,” Winston said. “That was the most important of my experiences.”

Winston said the trip changed his perspective on what mattered in his life, and training in medicine became his top priority. A few years later, he joined the military, a goal he had since starting college.

Winston was accepted into the neurology residency program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Unlike their civilian counterparts, students pursuing careers in military medicine receive their assignments months ahead of time.

“Once he matched in Maryland, I kind of started focusing more towards the programs in that part of the country,” Graham said.

Graham, a Houston native, chose pediatrics for her residency. She and Winston agree that while their Match Day applications took some strategizing, the process has worked out smoothly for them. Her top choice programs are in the Washington, D.C., and Virginia areas.

The most important thing to Graham is that she pursues her dream of working with children. While she grew up thinking she wanted to become a kindergarten teacher, she says her experience volunteering at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston as a high schooler opened up her future to medicine.

“Volunteering at Texas Children's really showed me the role that a physician can play,” she said. “You can still be there to nurture and care for kids, but also really kind of lead them through difficult experiences.”

Graham attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she majored in chemistry with minors in biology and psychology.

The two say that in a perfect world, Graham would match at a program near Winston. But Winston says that no matter where Graham matches, “We’re still winning.”

Brooke Bloom

From a young age, Brooke Bloom was fascinated with science and the human body. Her mother was a physician, and her dad was a dentist, but it was a genuine desire to help people that piqued her interest in a medical career.

“In middle school, two of my friends’ siblings were diagnosed with cancer and going through treatment, and that was the first time I really saw medicine at a more personal level,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to be a doctor. I’m going to help kids, and I want to help them and their families through serious illness.’”

Brooke says that’s when her journey to medicine became forward-thinking, and everything she did after that was with medical school in the future. She attended Trinity University for her undergraduate degree and majored in psychology with the idea of seeing the whole person in medicine.

“A lot of us, as patients, you go to the doctor for that organ system that needs a little bit of help, but everybody lives their life based on a lot of different circumstances, and I wanted to be able to factor that into my care in the future,” she said.

As she progressed through medical school, Brooke was exposed to all different kinds of fields and specialties, but what she enjoyed most was working with kids and the idea of helping them.

“I see myself working with kids with chronic conditions, so I can help them live their best lives with illness and figure out even if life looks a little bit different, how they can reach their goals,” she said.

As Match Day approaches and Brooke prepares to learn where she will be continuing her medical journey, she can’t help but think back to the kid she once was, one who dreamed of helping people.

“It’s crazy to look back on,” she said. “It feels like a lot has happened and many years have passed, but at the same time, it was not that long ago where being a doctor was a dream. And now that I’m here, part of it feels surreal. I just feel blessed to be in this position and have gotten this far and really be able to see that my life goals are coming to be, and I get to be that person to help kids in the future.”

Nathaniel Hunter

Growing up with a father who practiced family medicine, Nathaniel Hunter never expected to follow the same path. But once he started college and began thinking about his future, he realized his father’s career had influenced him far more than he had imagined.

While at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he volunteered at a children’s hospital working with pediatric oncology and cardiac patients. During the rest of his time in college, he worked in the emergency department. Instead of the long-term care that doctors can provide, he saw physicians’ immediate impact on every life they touched and knew he wanted to be a part of it.

“Watching the relationships my dad built and the people he helped, along with my own experiences working and volunteering in children’s hospitals, showed me the incredible privilege of caring for patients during some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” he said.

When Hunter came to McGovern Medical School,he had no idea what he would specialize in, but he slowly found where he fit best.

“I think anesthesiology was the perfect blend of all the medicine and physiology that I liked, but also gave me the time to be in the OR, which is an environment I was super interested in. It was a perfect blend of everything,” he said.

As Match Day approaches, he is reflecting on his experience at McGovern Medical School and is thankful for the mentors that got him here. He anxiously awaits his fate as a resident and is excited for the future.

“I think no matter the field, the support and mentorship opportunities here are more than one could ever ask for. Because of this, I am prepared for what's next.”

Neil Jayarajan

Watching his dad restore old cars and motorcycles for most of his life, Neil Jayarajan was intrigued by the mechanics of it all and thought he would follow in his footsteps.

It wasn’t long into his first year at The University of Texas at Austin before he realized mechanical engineering wasn’t for him. He didn’t want to give up, so he applied for biomedical engineering.

“I love engineering, and I want to touch the lives of people in a positive way, so I decided to go to medical school,” Neil said. “I was able to see the impact they have on patients without ever even meeting them. While I loved the mechanics of restoring old cars, I love the mechanics of surgery even more.”

Having lived in Texas his entire life, Jayarajan is excited for his future, whether he stays in his home state or ventures elsewhere. He hopes to make an impact like those at McGovern Medical School did for him.

“A lot of people have taught me and mentored me to get me to this point, and I feel like it's not only our duty to help those who come after us but to mentor them as well,” he said.