WHAT: Dozens of Morehouse School of Medicine students are gearing up for what proves to be one of the most momentous times of their lives, and one of the most exciting and emotionally charged for the Atlanta-based school. Some 50 M.D. students are expected to participate in Match Day, the annual rite of passage for fourth-year medical school students.

The national event, during which students at medical schools around the country learn of their residency appointments, takes place each March. Following commencement in May, new doctors will begin training in their chosen specialties.

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), established in 1952, works to match the preferences of medical students for residency opportunities with those offering training positions at the nation's teaching hospitals. Results from the NRMP are released simultaneously in the third week of March to fourth-year medical students nationwide.

WHEN: Thursday, March 20, 2008; 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: Morehouse School of Medicine; Auditorium, Louis W. Sullivan National Center for Primary Care, 720 Westview Drive SW, Atlanta, GA

Human Interest Stories

CharlRe' Slaughter and Emmanuel Atiemo

A match made at Morehouse School of Medicine, CharlRe' Slaughter and Emmanuel Atiemo met the first day of medical school orientation. Friendship blossomed to wedding plans, and three years later — in June 2008 — the couple is planning to exchange vows.

The two are competing in the couples' match. Slaughter has her sights on Emory University School of Medicine as her first choice and Johns Hopkins University as her second, while Atlanta Medical Center, followed by the University of Maryland, are on Atiemo's list.

An Atlanta native, CharlRe' Slaughter attended Benjamin E. Mays High School, graduating with high honors. She furthered her education at Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., before beginning her studies at MSM in July 2004.

Slaughter's fascination with medicine began at the young age of four, thanks in large part to her admiration of her pediatrician. With an interest in Pediatrics, CharlRe' — recently selected as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society — would like to work in Adolescent Medicine.

The son of Ghanaian parents who migrated to the United States in the 1970s, Emmanuel Atiemo is the youngest of five. His father, a physician, and siblings work in the health-care field. Compassion for those less fortunate than he and witnessing the suffering his mother has endured from arthritis helped spark Atiemo's interest in Orthopedic Surgery.

Damayea Hargett

An Atlanta resident, Damayea Hargett is making history as the first student of an MSM alumnus to attend and complete studies at MSM. Her mother, Rosa L. King, graduated from MSM in 1991. Hargett, born in New York, moved to Atlanta at the age of five when her mother first started attending MSM in 1986. "I recall sitting in the back of Dr. Smith's pathology lectures playing Uno and Candyland with my older sister," says Hargett, "sleeping on the brown couches that are still on the Hugh [M.] Gloster Building second floor, while my mom put in extra hours in the gross lab, or being babysat by my mother's classmates when I had chicken pox."

Hargett graduted summa cum laude with honors from Bethune-Cookman College in 2003, with a B.S. in Clinical Laboratory Science, and initially received rejections from 10 medical schools, including MSM. She reapplied again the following year through early decision to MSM only and received a favorable response.

Hargett, who faced personal challenges — her father suffered major strokes, during her first and third years of medical school — hopes to match in Orthopedic Surgery, a field that includes a small percentage of women and minorities.

Ruby Thomas

Since entering medical school, Ruby Thomas has excelled academically, earning several departmental awards for academic distinction at the May 2006 Class Day Awards ceremony. In addition, she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society as a third-year medical student. She attended Xavier University, majoring in Biology with a minor in Chemistry, on a full tuition scholarship. She graduated summa cum laude and was accepted into MSM on a full tuition scholarship. Thomas's scores on the United States Medical Licensing Exams steps 1 and 2 are outstanding and were considerably above the national average. She has been an exceptional student, one who is easily cited as one of MSM's best and brightest. Thomas graduated summa cum laude in 2004 from Xavier University of Louisiana. A 2000 graduate of North Springs High School, she graduated in the top 10 percent of her class.

The Smyrna resident and native of College Park, Ga., is interested in a residency in Pediatrics.

The day after Match Day, she will depart for an international mission in Ghana.

Thomas currently is vice president of the class of 2008. During her first and second years of medical school, she held leadership positions in the Student National Medical Association (SNMA).