Dr. Kyle Sheets, who graduated from UTMB, and his daughter, Heather,
in Levin Hall on March 20, 2008 at the Match Day ceremony.
GALVESTON, Texas - It was a little more than 10 years ago when Dr. Kyle Sheets, then a fourth-year UTMB medical student, sat with his family and waited to learn where he would do his residency training. At that time, Sheets was the father of 10 children and in his mid-forties, about to embark on a new career.
And on Thursday, Sheets again found himself sitting with his family in Levin Hall waiting to hear the results of Match Day, a day when UTMB seniors learn where they will do their residency training. But this time Sheets was here to find out where one of his daughters, Heather, would go to continue her medical education. 
Heather was among 194 UTMB medical school seniors waiting to hear their names called so that they could they could claim an envelope with their Match Day results. As per tradition, the names of the seniors were randomly drawn. As each name was called out, there were shouts and whoops from friends, fellow students and family members. And then it just got noisier as more students opened up envelopes, which led to more jumping, hugging, crying, yelling, high-fiving and bumping of knuckles.
By the end of the hour-long festivities, 94 percent of UTMB students had matched with the school of their choice. Of the 194 students, 108 (56 percent) are remaining in Texas and 42 (22 percent) are going into UTMB programs in Galveston and Austin.
Before the Match Day ceremony, Sheets and his wife, Bernita, said how proud they were of Heather. Bernita also quickly interjected, "I'm also very proud of my husband," as she remembered how he had sold his business in the 1990s, decided to finish college and then enroll in medical school at UTMB.
"I was 42 and had eight children when I started medical school," the doctor said. By the time Match Day rolled around for his class, he and Bernita had added two more children, Ben and Cori, to their family. Sheets, who practices in Muleshoe, Texas, also has formed Physicians Aiding Physicians Abroad and goes to Africa every year to do medical missionary work. Heather also has followed her father in that regard, working in a hospital in Zimbabwe.
"There is no way to do something like that and not have it transform you," Heather said. "It changes your perspective on life. It makes you appreciate the opportunity I have here to become a doctor," she said, adding that her father's decision to become a doctor wasn't too surprising since he had already quit his job to finish college.
"So we moved to Galveston and our house was always full of medical students. My dad is amazing but so is my mom. She does most of the legwork for the missions in Africa. And raising 10 kids is a feat in itself," Heather said.
And so, Ben and Cori, along with another sister, Shelley, waited with their parents as name after name was randomly called. At last it was Heather's turn. Her family surrounded her as she opened her envelope. And where would she be going? First to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and then on to the University of Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala. The Sheets family embraced and smiled as photos were being taken.
And as the last of the student names were called and as friends and family videotaped and shot pictures, the Sheets took the Match Day scene all in, knowing that they would soon be back in Levin Hall. But not for Heather's graduation. You see, there's another member of the Sheets family, Landon, now at Abilene Christian University, who wants to follow in his sister's and dad's footsteps and attend medical school at UTMB.