Surrounded by her family, Jess Halla (M.D. ’24) held the white envelope in her hands, her future sealed inside. Gathered inside the Mosiac Life Care Medical Center of St. Joseph, the first cohort of the UMKC School of Medicine St. Joseph Campus, along with their family and friends began the countdown – five, four, three, two, one – to precisely 11 a.m., when graduating medical students across the country simultaneously opened their Match Day letters.
When the moment finally arrived, Jess tore open her envelope, her eyes scanning the words inside. A smile broke across her face, and she erupted into joyous jumps, turning to her family with tears of excitement. She had matched with her first choice, a family medicine program at the University of Kansas - Wichita.
A Program Built for Rural Care
For the members of this inaugural class at the UMKC St. Joseph Campus, the moment is especially significant – it marks the first Match Day for this location. As the first cohort of graduates for the campus, which opened in 2021, these 15 chartered new paths, embracing hands-on healthcare learning in smaller communities.
The UMKC School of Medicine St. Joseph Campus was designed with a clear purpose: to train the next generation of rural physicians. The program offers students a unique opportunity to learn in smaller hospitals and clinics, gaining hands-on experience in settings where they are needed most.
Jess Halla: Following Her Passion for Rural Medicine
“I really found my passion while being here at the St. Joseph campus,” Halla said. “Through UMKC, they do a docent program, so you get paired with a physician for your four years of medical school. I was paired with a family med physician who really opened my eyes to not only family medicine and how it could play a role in a smaller community, but rural medicine too, and the barriers that they face, and how we can face those things as physicians.”
Hoping to eventually serve a rural community like her mentor, Halla was looking for a residency program that would expose her to a variety of medical practices so she would be prepared for the various needs of a rural doctor. And her match will provide her just that.
“I am feeling so excited, so overwhelmed, so thankful and blessed,” Halla said. “I know this is exactly where I'm meant to be, and I'm looking forward to this journey.”
Ashley Ayers: Serving Underserved Communities
For some, like Halla, their passion for rural medicine emerged through their experiences and connections over the past four years. Others, like Ashley Ayers (M.D. ’24), knew from the start that St. Joseph’s small setting was the perfect fit.
“I come from a small town of 250, so I was not so keen on living in Kansas City,” Ayers said. “So St. Joseph was the perfect alternative to Kansas City, but still getting a good education from the UMKC curriculum.”
Ayers also believed St. Joseph was the right choice for her because of the focus on rural medicine.
Growing up within a family of part-time missionaries to Haiti, Ayers discovered her passion for healthcare when joining the missions starting at 16 years old. In medical school, she continued pursuing service-based medicine, completing elective rotations with Native American communities in White Cloud, Kansas, and in rural Ghana.
“I did an elective rotation in Ghana, and that really helped kind of cultivate that passion and give me a better picture for what it looks like to serve underserved communities internationally,” Ayers said. “It was a rural town, so that was kind of cool to get both the local and international perspective of rural health and what that looks like.”
Ayers matched with a family medicine residency with her top choice, CoxHealth in Springfield, Missouri. There, she will be able to foster her passion for providing care to underserved and marginalized populations with rotations in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).
“Programs that offered experience in those kinds of clinics really drew me in because those are the exact populations that I'm hoping to help,” Ayers said. ”That’s kind of where my heart was.”
St. Joseph’s Success
Between the Kansas City and St. Joseph Campuses, 135 medical school students and recent graduates matched at a nearly 100% match rate, higher than the national average. More than 50% matched into primary care, and a third matched in Missouri or Kansas City metro area.
St. Joseph students had a wide range of specialties, including five matching into family medicine, and others matching internal medicine, psychiatry, radiation oncology, otolaryngology, OBGYN, orthopedic surgery and interventional radiology.
“If we scripted what we hoped and prayed would be the success of this program, we could not have scripted it better,” St. Joseph Campus Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Kristen Kleffner, Ph.D., said. “The whole mission of this program was to provide healthcare for those in rural communities, particularly in northwest Missouri, where there are some counties that have but one physician.”
Will Obert: Preparing for Rural Orthopedic Surgery
For some students, like Halla and Ayers, their match means staying close to home, training in rural communities similar to the ones they hope to serve. For others, their match is an opportunity to train in a larger setting before eventually returning to a small-town practice.
Will Obert (M.D. ’24), a Palmyra, Missouri, native, hopes to eventually return to a rural setting after completing his residency. However, because of his desire to specialize in orthopedic surgery, he prioritized programs that offer the most comprehensive training.
“I think more so ending up in a rural area when I’m working is more important than where I’m training,” Obert said. “The more rural area that you do training in, you don't see as many complex things sometimes, so I’ll train wherever I think I can get the best training, then end up in a rural area after.”
Obert developed his interest in orthopedic surgery in college after receiving surgery on his knee from a football injury. He later solidified that interest after spending time with Timothy Monohan, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at a rural hospital during a clerkship in his third year.
“Just how he treated his patients and worked with the staff in the OR in the clinic, that taught me that there's nothing else that I'd rather do with my life than be an orthopedic surgeon,” Obert said.
Obert matched with his first choice, an orthopedic surgery residency program in Danville, Pennsylvania, at Geisinger Health System, the same place his mentor, Monohan, completed his residency.
Looking to the Future
While the St. Joseph Campus medical students prepare to go their separate ways as they begin their residencies next year, many reflected on their time on this new campus and how it prepared them for their future goals.
“I wouldn't have changed it for anything,” Obert said. “The camaraderie that we built with a small group was second to none. It really let me get close with the docs. I have dinner once or twice a year with my docent because we are so close. All in all, I wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere else than St. Joe.”
Halla agreed that attending the St. Joseph Campus gave her a better learning experience than other settings.
“It honestly kind of fell into place, but it turned out to be the best experience I could have ever asked for in medical school, especially having those more small class sizes,” Halla said. “I was one-on-one with attending doctors, so I feel like my patient care experience has been astronomical compared to some of my other friends in different medical schools. We get to see every single patient we want. We can be as hands on as we want, and that really helped me feel more comfortable and confident in my patient care skills.”
Equipped with the personalized attention, immersive patient care experience offered at the UMKC School of Medicine St. Joseph Campus, the inaugural class of graduates is now prepared to embark onto the next phase of their medical journeys through their residencies.
“The decision what you do in this next phase of your journey is what will define you for the rest of your life,” Dean Emeritus Mary Anne Jackson (B.A. ‘77/M.D. ‘78) told the physicians matching at the St. Joseph Campus celebration. “As you scatter across the country, I know you will continue to make us proud by demonstrating the knowledge, kindness, empathy, compassion and professionalism that you've learned here.”