If you ask Vanderbilt University School of Medicine students why they chose VUSM, you’ll usually hear the same answer: the people. Whether it’s the exceptional faculty, the supportive administration, or the tight-knit student cohorts, there’s something about the VUSM community that makes students feel like they belong. M4s Brian Song and Kyoko Kohno are no exception; both say Vanderbilt’s strong sense of community was the deciding factor in choosing VUSM. But after a chance encounter on their first day and a placement in the same Case-Based Learning (CBL) group, the two soon realized that Vanderbilt had not just helped them find their people, it had helped them find their person– each other.
“I had the New York Times Games App installed, so during every break, we would play the Spelling Bee together,” Song said. “We spent a lot of time together there, and that’s where our friendship started.”
As they continued their first year of medical school, Song and Kohno fell into a routine with one another. Whether it was rock climbing, preparing for CBL, or making Japanese sandos for the class potluck, the two found being together both comforting and natural. By their second year, the two had become inseparable.
“I was going to her place all the time to study,” Song explained. “We became best friends, and I realized that everything I did was more enjoyable when it was with her.”
Pursuing Passions Side by Side
Among the things Song and Kohno found more enjoyable doing together was navigating their medical school journeys. When they made their relationship official at the end of their M2 year, they knew their time would be consumed with studying for Step exams. Thankfully, rather than being driven apart by busy schedules, the couple took exam preparation as an opportunity to grow closer.
“We were very much on the same wavelength,” Song said. “We’d study at the same time and take breaks at the same time. You look forward to those moments together, and it makes that whole three months that much more bearable and enjoyable.”
“If I was struggling with something like exams, having someone who was experiencing the same things was really reassuring,” Kohno said. “It’s something I don’t want to take for granted, especially going into residency. I think it really made it easy to feel heard and understood.”
Outside of the classroom, the two connected over student organizations. When Song served as Co-Cultural Director of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA), Kohno was always there to lend a hand. The couple worked together to prepare delicious meals of summer rolls, kimbap, and mooncakes to celebrate events like APAMSA’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration. When Kohno was Co-Outreach Director for Music In Medicine, Brian helped bring her keyboard into the hospital whenever she would play piano for patients with fellow medical student musicians. Shared experiences, they explain, are at the core of what makes their relationship work and what will carry them into the journey ahead.
Ready for Residency
As Song and Kohno planned for the future, they knew that, just like in medical school, they wanted to take it on together. With that in mind, the two decided to participate in the Couples Match, a process that allows two National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) applicants to link their rank order lists in the hopes they match into residency programs in the same geographic location. Despite going into two different specialties, Emergency Medicine for Song and Neurology for Kohno, they say they align completely on what they’re looking for in their next chapter.
“We knew early on that we would couples match because we knew we wanted a future together,” they explained. “We had ongoing discussions about the places we would want to live, and we found out we value a lot of the same things.”
Looking toward residency, the couple says that their Vanderbilt experiences have helped prepare them for what’s to come. During third year, they spent two of their research months on separate continents when Song conducted snakebite research in Guyana and Kohno studied cognition and aging at the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center. Despite busy schedules and mismatched shift hours, they stayed in close contact and developed the tools to not only find balance but also support one another going forward.
“I think we both recognize that residency will be a time where we’re working extremely hard, so I feel like having each other as a support system is huge,” Kohno said. “It’s just about finding the times where we can overlap and do things together or travel or explore the city we’re in. Those small moments will be the biggest thing for me.”
No matter what’s next, one thing is for sure: they’ll take it on together, as a team. Because in Kohno’s own words, “I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”