FORT WORTH  – Medical students from the class of 2026 at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University have made their way into some of the top medical residency programs in the United States.  

BURNETT SCHOOL OF MEDICINE MATCH DAY

 All students from the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU’s class of 2026 matched into residency programs for the fourth year in a row.  

COUPLES MATCH

The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) announces residency match results to all medical students in the United States at the same time on the third Friday in March. This year, students at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU celebrated learning their match with a music festival-inspired Match Day.   

RESIDENCY MATCHES BY SPECIALTY 

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS

Joohi Maknojia 

Hometown: Houston, TX 

Program: Baylor College of Medicine – Houston 

Specialty: Pediatrics  

Attending medical school is a journey that gets most students out of their comfort zone. For Joohi Maknojia, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine, it wasn’t just medical school pushing her out of her comfort zone. 

“That was my first time apart from my twin sister,” Maknojia said. “We grew up together. We went to University of Texas together. She helped me move in and stayed with me for a month because her medical school started later and the first day she left, I didn’t know how to function.” 

Her twin sister Roohi attended the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. It didn’t take long for the faculty, staff and students at Burnett School of Medicine to help ease Maknojia’s transition. 

“During Introduction to Medicine, we went to an elementary school and did a mural painting, and it was so fun,” Maknojia said. “Everyone was so kind and caring. All my classmates and peers were very receptive to the idea. I was a little bit out of my comfort zone, and they made the most effort to make sure I felt included.” 

Maknojia would soon find her place as a medical student with a focus on pediatrics and servant leadership. That was something her mother instilled in her and her sister from birth.  

“My mom had a complicated pregnancy with us and me and my sister were Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) babies,” Maknojia said. “The one thing she would always said  is if my daughters live, they will lead a life of soul and service.” 

That message from her mother would really begin to take shape for Maknojia during the Clinical Skills curriculum at Burnett School of Medicine. Using Standardized Patients (SPs) students get hands on learning where they practice patient interviewing and empathetic communication skills. The sessions are also paired with manikins that use artificial intelligence to communicate, and they learn point of care skills like ultrasound assessments.   

“I was able to go in there and speak independently and find my own voice and see this is how I like to lead and this is not what I like to do,” Maknojia said.  

Maknojia matched in pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine – Houston and her sister matched at HCA Houston Healthcare in emergency medicine. Luckily, they’ll both be living in the same city during residency.  

“If I’m ever needing her support or she’s ever needing my support, we’ll be right down the street from each other,” Maknojia said.  

Simar Goyal

Hometown: Rockland, New York

Program: NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital

Specialty: General Surgery

Understanding a patient’s story is a powerful skill in healthcare. It helps physicians meet patients where they are and create the best care plan for them.

Simar Goyal, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine, has always valued storytelling because it what lit the spark to pursue medicine in her as a child. Her grandparents were physicians in India. Her grandmother was an anesthesiologist, and her grandfather was an otolaryngologist. Both shared stories with her about their work.

“We would talk on the phone a lot and they would tell me stories about their experiences,” Goyal said.

Growing up in Rockland County, which is just outside New York City, she saw community members struggle accessing healthcare. The stories her grandparents shared were always rooted in improving the community by removing barriers to care.

“In India, it’s very different because your community are the patients and my grandma always said her patients were her best friends,” Goyal said.  “I fell in love with that idea that someone could be treated, and also be considered part of the family.”

Goyal wanted to continue a legacy of serving others through medicine.

“My grandmother would always call me Dr. Simar,” Goyal said.

She attended Baylor University for her undergraduate degree before coming to the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. As she navigated medical school and the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum, she gravitated toward becoming a surgeon.

“I think the Operating Room (OR) is the most genuine place where there’s a lot of teamwork from all different aspects and working together for one common goal,” Goyal said.

She matched in General Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. She will be return to the New York City area to make the same community impact her grandparents made in India.

“I’m really excited to be a surgeon,” Goyal said. “I’ll be in a place that values me, and also a place where I can make an impact in the community.”

Lauren Hui 

Hometown: San Ramon, CA 

Program: Yale School of Medicine 

Specialty: Interventional Radiology 

Your dreams and aspirations for your life can be rooted in your own ambitions. Other times your aspirations can be fueled by others that came before you.  

Lauren Hui, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine, says her dream to become a physician is also about completing a journey for her grandfather. 

“He didn’t get the opportunity to go to medical school back in the cultural revolution,” Hui said.  

Hui is a first-generation American whose parents moved to California from Hong Kong. She grew up speaking Cantonese with her grandparents.  

“I feel like I owe it all to those who came before me,” Hui said.  

Hui matched into interventional radiology at Yale School of Medicine. Interventional radiology is one of the most difficult medical specialties to match with only 150-200 spots in the U.S. available. Demand for the medical specialty is high, but the number of positions has grown slowly making it one of the most competitive specialties, according to the Residency Program List website. 

Hui becomes the third medical student from the Burnett School of Medicine to match into the competitive specialty. Jonas Kruse, M.D., ‘23, matched in interventional radiology at University of California Los Angeles Medical Center and Amir Mostafavi, M.D., ‘24, matched at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.   

“To find out that someone wants me to be at their program and wants to train me and make sure I’m the best doctor is very validating,” Hui said.  

She’s wanted to be a physician since the eighth grade, but her journey to get there truly began in 2022 when she became a part of the Burnett School of Medicine’s fourth matriculated class. She originally thought she would go into general surgery, but early clinical exposure she received through the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum made her realize she wanted something different.  

“What I ended up falling in love with is working with different patients across the whole body,” Hui said.  “There’s so much new innovation coming along in this field that I just wanted to be a part of that.” 

Cort Ewing 

Hometown: Colleyville, TX  

Program: University of Oklahoma College of Medicine 

Specialty: Otolaryngology 

Growing up in Texas, Cort Ewing looked up to his father who was the first in his  family to attend college and had a stellar career in sales. 

“He was always able to go and meet people where they were and meet those needs with a product,” said Ewing, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine.  

Ewing chose a career path that also allows him  to meet people where they are.  “I think being a physician is somewhat the same where you go and find what people’s needs are, and  help them with treatment and  care plans with compassion,” he said.  

His path to becoming a physician started as an undergraduate at TCU. Early on, he realized that medicine combined two of his favorite things: people and science.  

“Where else do you get that combination of learning and growing in a field that has such depth and complexity while also being able to apply that to the lives of people?” Ewing said.  

In 2022, he began his medical journey at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. 

The Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) curriculum put him and his classmates in hospital settings with patients from the moment they began medical school and throughout their time here.  

“When you’re learning something in your cardiology block, for example, you can see how learning the material is going to directly contribute to patient care,” Ewing said.

That ingrained medical knowledge led Ewing to match at University of Oklahoma College of Medicine for otolaryngology, or ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat). During his away rotation at Oklahoma,  Ewing  saw the healthcare team’s patient-centered approach.  

It’s  a place that holds those same values as the Burnett School of Medicine, he said.  

This accomplishment will be setting another milestone in his family. Ewing is the first person in his family to become a physician or work in the healthcare profession.  

“It’s a real honor to be that person for my family,” Ewing said. “I wish my dad’s parents were here to see this; I think they would have really been honored to see that since they didn’t attend college themselves.” 

Angela Abarquez 

Hometown: Alamo, CA  

Program: Ochsner Health – New Orleans 

Specialty: Internal Medicine

As a medical student, there are moments when you might feel unsure of where you belong. 

“There were a lot of moments where I felt like: ‘Am I really doing anything to help the patients?’,” said Angela Abarquez, MS4 at Burnett School of Medicine. 

She felt those feelings early in the medical school’s unique Empathetic Scholar® curriculum. It puts students alongside a physician and their patients at the start of their medical education. 

 “I found that by communicating with them consistently in an empathetic way and putting thought behind my actions really did make a difference in their care,” Abarquez said. 

That level of empathy is something that Abarquez has always valued growing up as an only child in a religious household. She was born in the Philippines and her family moved to Austin, before finally settling in Alamo a suburb in Northern California.  

“My mom still sings in the church choir to this day, and I lean on my church community a lot,” Abarquez said. “Being an only child, I delved into work in the community a lot because I genuinely like to be around people.” 

When choosing a medical school,  Burnett School of Medicine was her top choice because of the emphasis in training physicians who have both medical knowledge and empathy. 

“I knew I wanted a place that really valued physician communication,” Abarquez said.  

The early clinical exposure she received prepared her to match in internal medicine at Ochsner Health in New Orleans. 

Through the LIC curriculum, medical students spend four years being a member of a healthcare team at multiple hospital partners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. They are trained in seven of the major medical specialties: Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Surgery. 

“In the beginning, I was so shy and I was so nervous, but now I feel like I can be who I am more and be confident,” Abarquez said. “I think that’s something that came with all the exposure.” 

In residency, she plans to continue to learn and practice patient care with empathy: “I want to remember the kindness and thoughtfulness that I’ve learned here and make sure I carry that in every interaction I have going forward.”