Recent KCU graduates celebrate couples match

With the excitement of commencement still in the air, two new graduates from Kansas City University (KCU) Farber-McIntire Joplin Campus are now celebrating a successful couples match through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Drs. Lauren McCroskie and Mitchell Nichols are on their way to Georgia to begin their residency together after navigating the intense application process for the last year – and it was all in the name of love.

Lauren and Mitchell are excited for their upcoming wedding as they pass the milestone of graduation and begin their careers in medicine, but looking back, they smile when explaining that they didn’t even know each other before attending KCU. It was a twist of fate that brought them together. Mitchell says that the opportunities offered at KCU and the city of Joplin led him to the area. “I felt like the advantages here really outweighed other medical schools,” he said, “Something just felt right about Joplin.”

While Lauren is from Missouri and would be close to family, she was drawn to the University’s 100-year standing, reputation and connections. “The alumni base is vast when compared to other medical schools, and that really stood out to me as a prospective student,” she said. While Lauren didn’t have a preference of which KCU campus she attended, she is happy that she ended up in Joplin.

The two met during orientation week, which allows incoming students an opportunity to get to know fellow classmates and the area better before the start of the semester, but a real connection between them grew as the year progressed. “We could study together and understand the commitment it takes to be a student at KCU. It was easy to relate to each other,” Lauren exclaimed.

Once they started dating, they began to see the benefits of having a fellow partner attending medical school. “You have a built-in best friend and someone who is always going through the same experiences, so it actually brought us closer together. We were always cheering for each other to do the best we could,” said Mitchell.

By their fourth-year, it was time to start the couples match process to see if they could attend a residency together. “We had a lot of mentors to help us along the way, including Katie Harden, KCU residency placement coordinator. It was really manageable with the appropriate planning,” expressed Mitchell. Now, Lauren has matched in internal medicine and Mitchell has matched in family medicine at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia.

KCU would like to wish the couple well as they start a new journey not only as partners, but as doctors.