Greetings from Miami! It has been an interesting last few months. We have welcomed our class of 2023. They are another fantastic class who come from all over the country, bringing a breadth of diversity, experiences and insight. Their onboarding occurred during South Florida’s second peak of COVID-19. We hit our apex at the end of July, but managed it well as a community, hospital system and residency.

Faculty and residents from the University of Miami/Jackson Health System were excited to attend, participate and present at this year’s virtual Symposium by the Sea. We were amazed by our residents, Drs. Joshua Goldstein and Andrea Alvarado, who competed in the clinical pathology competition. Dr. Goldstein won the award for the best presenter, Dr. Alvarado won best discussant, and we were selected as the best overall team. Dr. Naomi Newton, PGY-1 won an award for her HIV research at the poster competition as well. Congratulations to them for their hard work and well-deserved victories.

We are over halfway through our first virtual recruitment season and are excited to say things have been running quite smoothly. We have already met an amazing group of applicants and can’t wait to welcome our new class of 2024. We have held socials virtually along with other events, such as a Women in Emergency Medicine gathering to discuss the topic of “imposter syndrome.”

One of the newest additions to our residency has been the development of our social emergency medicine curriculum. Led by Dr. Naomi Newton, the project aims to increase community outreach, enhance access to care, and tackle social justice topics. We are excited about how these new opportunities will improve our Miami-Dade community. However the most exciting news of 2020 by far was that we began vaccinations at Jackson Memorial Hospital on December 15. We are hopeful and looking forward to post-COVID life. Stay safe everyone, and thank you for all that you do. ■