In July 2023, twenty residents started an internal medicine residency that had never graduated anyone. They came from fifteen medical schools. There were no seniors above them, no alumni to call, and no match list to point to.
In June 2026 they became this program’s first graduating class. Each of them left with a medal engraved with three lines: their name, Founding Resident, and Class of 2026.
This is where they went.
Fifty-five percent of the founding class was hired by the hospital that trained them.
Applicants ask a version of this question on every interview day: after three years here, would you stay? Eleven of twenty answered it by staying.
Where the eleven went:
Six of them are now on our teaching faculty. The residents who had no seniors above them are teaching the classes that came in behind them.
Six of the twenty matched into subspecialty fellowship: three in cardiology, and one each in gastroenterology, nephrology, and palliative medicine.
Palliative Medicine — Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida
Cardiology — UCF/HCA Florida Osceola Hospital
Nephrology — Baylor College of Medicine
Gastroenterology — UCF/HCA Florida Osceola Hospital
Cardiology — Lakeland Regional Health
Cardiology — HCA Florida Aventura Hospital
One of those matches stayed home. Dr. Rivera Martinez is the first fellow in Lakeland Regional Health’s new Cardiovascular Medicine fellowship: a founding resident who became a founding fellow.
Of the twenty graduates of the Class of 2026:
Eleven plus five plus four is twenty. Dr. Rivera Martinez appears in both the retention count and the fellowship list; he is counted once.
A program with a long history can show you decades of match lists. We have one class, so we will tell you plainly what happened to it: more than half were hired by the hospital that trained them, and six went on to subspecialty training at Mayo Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, UCF/HCA, HCA Florida, and here.