Match Day Profile - Christian Sleeper & Lindsay Newton

Christian Sleeper, M21, aspiring interventional radiologist, and Lindsay Newton, M21, aspiring anesthesiologist, Maine Track MD students

Christian: We’ve been really fortunate to be at the Maine Medical Center as part of the Maine Track program. I’ve found awesome mentors from diagnostic radiology and the operating room who took me under their wing, so I could learn to combine my interest in radiology with surgery.

Lindsay: When I applied for med school, I wanted to be able to explore rural health, as well as live somewhere where the quality of life is fantastic. With the Maine Track, you’re working in a high-tier academic hospital but you get to go to the beach or go biking or hiking around Portland.

Christian: In our careers, we’d love to end up in New England and play a role in the Maine Track going forward—we’re very interested in medical education. But since we’re matching as a couple and because we can go somewhere together with this built-in support system, it makes us feel totally fine matching anywhere.

Lindsay: Medicine can be very heavy. There are not a lot of jobs where you may have people dying in front of you over the course of the day. I had a difficult rotation in the surgical ICU in the early summer with several unfortunate outcomes, and Christian saw how I was run down from that. He’s been through the same thing, so he automatically understands.

I didn’t come to med school intending to find a life partner. But by the nature of the intensity of medical school, you get to know each other on a very deep level. I’m so fortunate to have such a great partner in this process.

Their match: University of Michigan. Lindsay says: “We both cried a little bit, and after having a complicated match, it’s nice to know we’re going exactly where we wanted to go. My residency [in anesthesiology] is shorter than Christian’s [in interventional radiology] so it’s good there are a lot of fellowships and academic opportunities I can pursue at Michigan. We’ve heard wonderful things about both programs from Tufts alumni who are there!”