For most medical students, Match Day is a rite of passage, a day to find out where they will spend the next three to seven years as a resident. But for Scott Sexton, SMHS MD ’15, match day was something more. Scott’s fiancé, Stephanie Knapp, SMHS MD ‘14, had matched into Duke Urology upon her graduation a year earlier, and Scott was waiting on pins and needles to find out whether or not he would end up at Duke, too.
“I had proposed to Stephanie before Christmas,” Scott recalls. “We went to see Dickens’ Christmas Story in Alexandria, VA. Afterwards, I proposed by the waterfront, and then we celebrated with family.”
However, there was still that slight problem of whether or not they would be able to spend the next few years together, but when the fateful day came—“We found out that I had matched at Duke!” Scott says. “Match Day was one of the happiest day of my life.”
The genesis of this happy day began years earlier at a medical school formal, where Scott and Stephanie danced all night. “From that moment on, we were hooked,” Scott says of his fiancé. “We have never left each other’s side. She looked like a goddess in her dress. I had a ridiculous beard but cleaned up nicely in my suit.”
Medical school was long and arduous for both of them, but not without its enjoyable moments. Early on in their courtship, Scott and Stephanie played husband and wife at GW’s “A Day in the Life of a Medical Student” event. This all-day workshop provides family and friends an insider’s view of what it’s like to be a student at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“In our scenario, Stephanie had stomach pain and I was her husband,” Scott says. “A group of ten people—family and friends of medical students—asked us questions to try and get to the bottom of what was going on.”
One of their favorite physicians was in attendance and particularly enjoyed the performance, but little did any of them know, Scott and Stephanie would be engaged to be married in real life just a year and a half later.
On April 2, 2016, Scott and Stephanie are getting married in Durham, NC, since the stars aligned to make sure they got there. Apparently, the universe has spoken: the man in the suit is indeed a perfect match for his goddess.
—Mary Follin
