Students prepare in the months leading up to this day, by applying to residencies through the Electronic Residency Application Service. After interviews, students and residency programs each provide a rank list to the National Residency Matching Program where results are determined through a computer algorithm.

Ten U.P. Campus students along with students from six of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine community campuses across the state attained a 100% match rate this year.

“I am so excited to be spending the next seven years in New Hampshire with the general surgery program at Dartmouth!” said Noelle Polakowski, MSU CHM medical student in a press release. “I look forward to joining a group of incredibly talented residents and for the opportunity to train under the extraordinary faculty at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. This match allows me to continue chasing the dream to become a rural surgeon, and it feels a whole lot more special knowing that I will be doing it alongside my best friend and sister.”

Polakowski will be moving to an area she is familiar with.

Noelle Polakowski

In 2019, alumni and sister, Caitlin Polakowski Payne, MD, matched with the same program into the neurosurgery subspecialty.

“Having my sister here will make it easy for me to call this place true home,” said Dr. Caitlin Polakowski Payne. “It means making the long residency days a little shorter. It means learning how to be better doctors and surgeons together.”

Both sisters were born and raised in Houghton.

Nick LeMire will be heading to The University of Washington Chelan, a family medicine rural training program, starting in Seattle Washington for the intern year before moving to Chelan for the remainder of training.

“I am very excited to get the unique chance of receiving a robust academic urban experience to then head to rural Chelan for full-spectrum family medicine training,” said MSU CHM medical student Nicholas LeMire. “It is special to me to continue my rural training with the hopes to return to the rural UP to continue the legacy.”

He follows a family tradition of health care providers.

“My grandpa, Dr. John LeMire, was a general surgeon and also practiced occupational medicine, my great grandpa, Dr. William LeMire II, was a general practitioner and my great uncle, Dr. William LeMire III was an OB GYN,” said LeMire. “Together they served the UP population for over 100 years!”

LeMire’s great uncle also played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Upper Peninsula Medical Education Program for Michigan State University College of Human Medicine which began in Escanaba.

“Our students form deep connections with rural medicine through their experiences across the UP, and many of our students grew up in rural areas,” said Student Programs Administrator for the UP Clinical Campus, Susan Tincknell. “We hope our students return to the UP after residency to continue their medical careers and mentor our future students.”

The UP Campus was established in 1974 as the pioneer of the Rural Physician Program under the Leadership in Rural Medicine certificate program, with the goal of educating and training medical students to become exemplary physicians who return and practice in rural communities of the U.P.