06/22/2026
One year apart. Same group. A very different chapter. 💙
A year ago, Dr. Carli Gentile, Dr. Natasha Welch, Dr. Gabriela Medrano, Dr. Emma Fralin, and Dr. Kira Veach stood together at the beginning of their rotating internship at VRA. Now, as they prepare for tomorrow’s intern graduation ceremony, we get to look back at how much can happen in one year.
Internship year is not easy. It asks a lot from young doctors — long days, hard cases, late nights, constant learning, and the kind of growth that happens one patient, one shift, and one decision at a time.
Over the past year, this class became part of our hospital. They worked alongside our emergency and specialty teams, cared for patients and families, supported one another, and continued becoming the doctors they set out to be.
This class will also always be a special one for VRA. They were Dr. Sindu Manoharan’s first intern class as Intern Director, and Dr. Matthew Lechner’s first intern class serving as Medical Director after his time leading the program as Intern Director.
Tomorrow, they will be formally recognized by their mentors and receive their certificates and flowers, but today we want to pause and say how proud we are of the year they have completed.
To our 2025–2026 interns: thank you for your dedication, your curiosity, your humor, your resilience, and the care you brought to VRA every day. We are proud of you, grateful to have been part of your journey, and so excited to see where you go from here.
Congratulations, doctors. You will always be part of VRA. 🐾
