Match Day Marks a New Beginning for Med School Couple

Karlos Manzanarez Felix and Trinidad Alcalá-Arcos, who met on the first day of orientation for the UC Irvine School of Medicine, have supported each other for five years, through exams, rotations, setbacks and celebrations.

“We’ve navigated medical school side by side as two students from immigrant, low-income backgrounds,” says Alcalá-Arcos, who is part of the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). “We’ve leaned on each other through some of the hardest and most defining moments of this journey.”

“I don’t feel I would have accomplished as much as I did without her,” says Manzanarez Felix, also a PRIME-LC student.

Now, as their medical school journey winds down, they look forward to attending Match Day on March 20, 2026, and learning where they will begin their careers in surgery. 

“Matching as a couple isn’t just about staying together,” says Alcalá-Arcos. “It’s about building a future grounded in shared values, resilience and purpose.”

WATCH A VIdeo about their story

Providing Compassionate Care

As first-generation Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students, both entered medical school keenly aware of structural barriers and a lack of representation in healthcare. Latinos make up just 6 percent of physicians in California, despite being 40% of the population.

“We are contributing to a small but growing population of Latine physicians in California,” says Manzanarez Felix, “helping improve patients’ health.”

As they start their careers, they draw not only from their PRIME-LC training in caring for underserved Latino communities but also from their own lived experience.

When meeting with patients, Alcalá-Arcos can’t help but think of her father, who died during the COVID-19 pandemic after a preventable complication. “As a Spanish speaker, he struggled to understand the care he was receiving, and given visitor restrictions and my own illness, I wasn’t able to be there to translate and interpret for him,” she says. “He died alone, and that experience left me feeling powerless.” Yet it also gave her purpose.

Alcalá-Arcos now builds authentic connections with patients as she strives to improve health outcomes. “A memorable moment from my internal medicine rotation involved caring for a patient with a diabetic foot ulcer complicated by osteomyelitis, which required an urgent amputation,” she recalls. She knew why the patient had waited to seek care. “I’d lived that fear with my family, delaying care because of costs, language barriers, lack of trust, loss of work and the fear of deportation.”

Alcalá-Arcos also realized that the patient hadn’t fully understood the severity of his infection. “He’d nodded through explanations filled with medical jargon,” she says. “I explained everything in Spanish, slowly, and spoke with his family. Eventually, he consented to the surgery, not because we convinced him, but because he felt heard and supported.” She keeps in touch with the patient to this day.

That experience affirmed the kind of physician Alcalá-Arcos hopes to be. “I want to communicate with empathy, listen between the lines and build trust with patients through cultural dexterity,” she says. “I want to bridge the gap between systems and patients, especially those who’ve been historically left behind.”

Community, Advocacy & Leadership

Manzanarez Felix also knows the struggles of living in the U.S. as a Mexican immigrant, but he has found comfort in the power of community. “Despite living in a society with widespread fear and uncertainty, my parents found a supportive community in our neighborhood,” he says. “Everyone played a role in ensuring our collective well-being. Our neighborhood has been a constant source of support throughout my life.”

He has found a similar sense of community in PRIME-LC, and he was honored to speak at an event in 2025 celebrating the program’s 20th anniversary. “Being a DACA student for most of my life, I often felt voiceless, but that speech gave me the privilege to continue to advocate for the existence of programs like PRIME-LC and PRIME LEAD-ABC [a similar program for African, Black, and Caribbean communities],” says Manzanarez Felix. “PRIME-LC serves as a reminder that individuals like myself have valuable perspectives to offer. I hope to embody a physician who continues to champion the representation of minority students in medicine.”

Throughout medical school, Manzanarez Felix took on leadership roles and engaged in advocacy work, helping to organize the Pre-Health Conference hosted by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA). At the conference, he led suturing workshops and moderated panel discussions. He, along with Alcalá-Arcos, also helped coordinate the 2025 PRIME Statewide Conference, which mobilized more than 200 students from across the state under the theme, “RISE: Redefining Innovation, Service, and Equity for our communities.”

“Finding ways to create mentorship spaces for students has become a core part of my commitment, and I have discovered my voice through sharing my story,” he says. “I developed a deeper appreciation for Latino populations, engaged in advocacy work, and created a community with other students interested in surgical fields,” he says. He now looks forward to joining the community of surgeons providing excellent surgical care to diverse populations.

Alcalá-Arcos has also felt empowered by PRIME-LC. “It gave me a community, a language and a framework to turn lived experience into leadership,” she says, noting that the program afforded her the opportunity to pursue a Master's in Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Health Systems and Policy. “As a result, I participated in legislative advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill and at the California State Capitol, using my voice to push for structural reforms that impact the communities I care most deeply about.”

A New Beginning

For Alcalá-Arcos and Manzanarez Felix, Match Day represents more than just the end of an academic journey and the start of a new career. It marks a new chapter in what’s possible in healthcare.

“As an immigrant who came to this country at 6 years old, I was constantly reminded, both subtly and explicitly, that medicine wasn’t built for people like me, and that I wasn’t built for medicine,” says Alcalá-Arcos. “I was told to have a ‘backup plan,’ to dream smaller.”

Now, as Alcalá-Arcos and Manzanarez Felix realize their dreams of becoming surgeons, they are helping to build a more inclusive system, and they’re lending a hand to those hoping to follow in their footsteps.

“Having been a recipient of great mentorship,” says Manzanarez Felix, “I hope to continue sharing valuable skills with younger students to benefit their future careers.”

“Match Day is a beginning,” says Alcalá-Arcos, “It’s a chance to continue showing that people from undocumented, immigrant, and working-class backgrounds don’t just belong in medicine; we bring something essential. And we’re just getting started.”

Match Day update: Trinidad Alcalá-Arcos and Karlos Manzanarez Felix will be staying in Southern California! Alcalá-Arcos matched into general surgery at UC Irvine, and Manzanarez Felix matched into general surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

— Shani Murray