Match Day: Long Island medical school students learn their residency hospitals

Just before noon on Friday, medical school students on Long Island and around the country counted down to open envelopes containing their future.

The annual Match Day pairs students at medical schools, like Stony Brook University, Hofstra/Northwell’s Zucker School of Medicine and the NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine in Mineola, with the hospitals where they will start their careers as doctors with their medical residencies.

As she opened her envelope on Friday, Delphina Maldonado, 25, of Mineola, wiped away tears and cheered with her family and friends as she was placed in the OB/GYN program at NYU Langone Hospital — Long Island.

"I think it’s really exciting and also nerve-wracking, but I’m excited to start a new chapter of my life," Maldonado said.

The Bronxville native said she was excited to stay at NYU Langone, where she said her best friend would be a co-resident. She comes from a family of doctors, including her father who is an NYU vascular surgeon, her mother who is an OB/GYN and her 87-year-old grandmother, who is still a practicing pathologist.

"She’s got the right outlook on life and compassion to care for people," said her father, Tom Maldonado. "She’s a perfect fit. We’re in good hands."

Delphina Maldonado was among 25 students who matched in the fifth year for the NYU medical school. She will join a dozen of her classmates who were matched with NYU Langone.

Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine matched 120 of their students to residencies at various hospitals.

Hofstra matched 82 students to hospitals in 16 specialties across 15 states, including 22 students matched to Northwell Health, officials said.

NYU officials said students passed an accelerated three-year program to meet a shortage of primary care doctors.

"Match Day is a significant milestone on a physician's journey through medical school," NYU Grossman Dean Gladys Ayala said. "We're really focusing on all of that hard work that has led these soon-to-be doctors on their journey and into their next phase of their training."

Nicole Bryce, 26, of Mineola, said she was inspired to go into pediatrics after watching her mother run a day care from their home in Staten Island. She was given a guaranteed residency at NYU Langone in Mineola.

"I love how close-knit the community is. I feel like all the attending residents are one big family," Bryce said. "I felt like I fit in. I feel like it's a wonderful learning environment."

Zvi Grossman, 26, said he was inspired to become a doctor after watching his father practice medicine while growing up in Woodmere. He said his dad, Martin Grossman, was a neighborhood doctor and that piqued his interest at an early age.

"He would speak to other physicians. He was speaking in a language that I really didn't understand, and I always wanted to know," Grossman said.

His father said they now shared a special bond.

"It’s amazing that we can actually have conversations now and he understands what I'm talking about," Martin Grossman said. "I want to hire him as soon as he finishes."