Five students from the OUWB Class of 2025 matched early this week in the specialties of urology and ophthalmology.

Emelie-jo Nappo, Garrett Peters, Renee Ringler, and Corey Shafer matched Monday in urology.

Suhani Gupta matched Tuesday in ophthalmology.

Early matches apply to specialties not affiliated with the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), which annually holds its Match Day the third Friday in March. (The military match is also held early, in December.)  

“I am thrilled to have another successful match in urology for our OUWB students,” says Kenneth Peters, M.D., professor and chair, Department of Urology, OUWB, and chair of Urology, Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital (WBUH).

The four students who matched in urology join 27 OUWB alumni who previously matched in the specialty.

“Urology is a very competitive specialty and our extraordinarily high match rate in this field is a testament to the caliber of medical students that OUWB trains and the outstanding support they get from the Department of Urology,” he added.

‘Over the moon’

According to the Society of Academic Urologists (SAU) and American Urological Association (AUA), 529 medical trainees participated in the urology match for 403 positions in 148 residency training programs across the U.S. Seventy-six percent of the trainees matched.

Shafer matched at University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

“I woke up at 3 a.m. (the day match results were announced) and could not get back to sleep,” he says. “When I saw I got UConn, I was excited.”

“There was relief and the sense of accomplishment…four years of med school, four years of undergrad…it’s finally paid off,” he added.

Originally from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, Shafer attended University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

His first exposure to the field of urology was as a freshman at Michigan where he had a work-study job in the urology department.

“I immediately fell in love with the people, the physicians, and what they are doing in their cases,” he says.

That love only strengthened when he spent two weeks on urology during his surgery rotation.

“It just felt like home to me,” he says. “I felt the most at peace and the happiest there and knew this is what I want to do.”

Nappo matched at SUNY Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. When she started medical school, Nappo thought she was “going to do something totally different” than urology.

But she says, OUWB provided several early opportunities to learn more about the specialty, including it as part of the preclinical curriculum in the renal and reproductive courses.

As Nappo made her way through medical school, she also learned that urology afforded her the ability to do a surgical specialty while having the opportunity to provide long-term patient care.

“I’m super appreciative that OUWB gave me early exposure to urology,” she says. “That is definitely unique and really helped me make the decision to specialize in it.”

Nappo is originally from Buffalo, New York and attended University of Buffalo, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.

Matching at SUNY Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences means Nappo will return to her home.

“I feel absolutely over the moon,” she says.

“I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement to match at my top choice and in a competitive specialty like urology.”

Also “extremely excited” about his match was Peters, who matched at University of California-San Diego School of Medicine.

“It’s a culmination of a lot of years of work put into learning the most I can and putting all of these different pieces together into a final goal,” he says. “To finally see that match come across my screen was very exciting.”

Originally from northern California and Eugene, Oregon, Peters attended Montana State University where he earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology before attending OUWB.

He decided to specialize in urology because of the people in the field and the fact that “you make really good quality of life impacts on patients and can really see the improvements in their lives.”

The OUWB program played a significant role in his decision, too.

“I was provided the resources I needed to get to this point,” he says. “Everything from planning for exams, getting advice on rotations… (the urology department) guided me to get to the point where I want to be in life and that’s super special.”

Ringler matched at University of Kentucky College of Medicine, where she did a monthlong away rotation last fall and “absolutely loved it.”

“The people were great. The program was structured very well and in ways that I felt would benefit me going forward,” she says. “It felt like a perfect fit.”

Originally from Cedar Springs, Michigan, Ringler attended Loyola University where she earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and a master’s degree in medical sciences.

As she prepares for residency to begin this summer, Ringler says she is grateful for those at OUWB and Corewell Health who she calls “very supportive” and “helped me figure out exactly what I wanted.”

“As soon as I expressed interest in urology, everyone tried to help in any way they could, which was phenomenal,” she says.

Ringler’s experiences are among the reasons Peters says the urology program at WBUH “has an outstanding reputation around the country” and consistently produces students who successfully match.

“We have fantastic faculty and support staff and welcome OUWB students to work closely with us both clinically and on research projects during their medical school,” he says.

“These opportunities separate them from other medical students seeking a urology residency,” he adds. “OUWB is known to produce outstanding physicians, and I believe urology programs from around the U.S. recognize this fact and are happy to invite our students to train in their residency programs.”

Gupta could not be reached for comment.

For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, senior marketing specialist, OUWB, at adietderich@oakland.edu.

To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.

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