Following a wonderful graduation dinner and farewell celebration at the World Equestrian Center in June, summer in Ocala brought the next academic year and a new class of brilliant residents into the Ocala EM Family! After a great start kicking off their year with Intern Boot Camp, they have hit the department in full stride!

This year, our entire rising third-year class attended SAEM in New Orleans, representing UCF-Ocala EM with several research presentations while appreciating the history and sites of the city. We were also excited to see everyone at ACEP in October!

We celebrated the arrival of our new class with a river float trip through Rainbow Springs, with tubing, kayaking, and enjoying the springs on a hot Florida summer day. We have continued our culinary tour of North Florida during our monthly Journal Clubs, held at local restaurants, featuring foundational articles as well as up and coming research for discussion.

We are looking forward to our upcoming annual anatomy dissection lab at the University of Central Florida, where we will spend the day reviewing procedures including lateral canthotomy, thoracotomy, among others, followed by a lunch event and pool wellness day.

In our spare time, we are bonding during after-conference lunch traditions, attending weekly trivia nights and exploring downtown, landscaping our new residents’ yards (planting palm trees is a group effort!), attending college football games (even if we are rooting for opposite teams), and starting our own residency Fantasy Football League!

We are very excited to kick off the upcoming interview season, and wish everyone a happy and healthy fall. ■