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MEDICAL SCHOOL
EVALUATION & GRADUATION

Match Day

By The University of The Incarnate Word School of
Osteopathic Medicine

For 32-year-old Ste’Von Voice, March 19, 2021 was a long time
coming on an unusual journey. Voice, originally from Terrell, Texas,
started his college career in Corpus Christi with dreams of becoming
a singer. He is now living the dream of becoming a doctor here in San
Antonio. This reality was about to take another major step forward
on the first-ever Match Day for the inaugural class at the University
of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM).
“I was very excited to find out if I was going to get into my No. 1
program,” said Voice. “Once I found out that I did match with my
No. 1, I was very thankful to God for my blessings and immediately
started envisioning my next adventures in life.”
Voice joined dozens of his classmates on the UIWSOM campus at
Brooks on March 19. Held outdoors due to pandemic restrictions,
nothing could contain the cheers and tears of joy as each student
learned where they would spend the next three to seven years in res-
idency, depending on their specialty. They then filed one-by-one into
an auditorium filled with socially distanced faculty to announce their
good news and celebrate their match.
What they had to say to the faculty was extraordinary. Fifty-five
percent of the inaugural UIWSOM Class of 2021 matched into pri-
mary care specialties including Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and
Family Medicine. In all, the class matched into 14 different specialties.
Eighty-four people matched into programs in Texas and the rest
matched into programs in 22 other states, including Alaska and
Hawaii. Eight learners are military service members, and all matched
into military residency programs in the Army and Navy.
UIWSOM continues the tradition of its founding congregation,
the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, to bring quality and
compassionate health care to where it is needed most. UIWSOM’s will be the many days and nights of studying on campus with col-
mission is to empower all members of the medical education com- leagues to get through exam weeks together,” said Voice.
munity to achieve academic, professional and personal success and
develop a commitment to lifelong learning through excellence in UIWSOM is proud to announce it graduated 137 learners
learner-centered, patient-focused education, justice-based research as its inaugural class in May of 2021.
and meaningful partnerships of osteopathic clinical service. “I am so proud of our inaugural class and everyone in the SOM
For Ste’Von Voice, March 19 brought clarity. He is exactly where learning community who worked so selflessly to reach this milestone,”
he says he wants to be: on a journey that led him from Terrell and said Dr. Robyn Philips-Madson, Dean of the UIW School of Osteo-
now is headed to his No. 1 choice, Providence Hospital in Anchorage, pathic Medicine. “We’re very grateful for the Sisters of Charity of the
Alaska to study Family Medicine and Wilderness Medicine. All of it Incarnate Word, our UIW colleagues, community partners and physi-
bringing him one step closer to his ultimate dream of one day working cian preceptors for their support. The Class of 2021 engaged with
for NASA and maybe even becoming an astronaut. Still, he says he grace, a pioneering spirit, flexibility and creativity when faced with the
will look back on his time in the Alamo City fondly. pandemic and the challenges of being the first class. They are compas-
“I will remember how thankful I am for the opportunity to be a sionate osteopathic physicians who care about the vulnerable and mar-
part of the inaugural graduating class at UIWSOM and the training ginalized, and I have no doubt they will change the face of osteopathic
they gave me to become a holistic physician. Another fond memory medicine, health care and their communities in the future.”

14 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • June 2021