Married Couple Matches into Adventist Health Residency Program

On the morning of match day, when medical graduates learn if they’ve been matched into a residency program, married couple Wendy Huang, MD, and Lawrence Chang, MD, awoke to an alarm set for 6:30 a.m. to check their emails together.

To their excitement, they learned they matched into the Adventist Health Hanford-Sonora Family Medicine Residency Program through the couple’s match process.

“It was an exciting and emotional moment for both of us,” says “Dr. Huang. “We were over the moon and grateful we could continue our journey in the medical field together.”

The couple met while attending medical school at Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland. It was freshman year and they were socializing with other students when they learned they were both from Taipei, Taiwan.

“We were surprised that though we were raised in the same city, we had no mutual friends on social media, but we had similar interests and similar reasons for entering the medical field,” says Dr. Huang, whose father is a physician. Growing up and watching her father help people through medicine and the impact he had on their lives is what inspired Dr. Huang to follow the same path.

Dr. Chang’s father is a gastroenterologist.

“I saw my father as a role model,” says Dr. Chang. “When I would visit him at the clinic, his patients showed so much gratitude for his care, and I wanted to give back in the same way.”

Both Dr. Huang and Dr. Chang were drawn to family medicine because it’s a broad specialty that covers clinical care, hospital care, urgent care, preventive health, and community health. It will also allow them to care for patients of all ages and build long-term relationships. They said it’s the best fit for the type of physicians they hope to become.

Three years after graduating from medical school, the couple married in Orange County, Calif. in January 2025. That same year, they attended a conference in Kansas City to learn about residency programs and visited the Adventist Health booth.

“Everyone was so friendly, welcoming, and kind,” says Dr. Huang. 

The couple was impressed by the Adventist Health Hanford-Sonora Family Medicine Residency Program because they said it met many of their needs, including location. The couple enjoys nature and is excited about the short drive to Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park. 

They also want to train somewhere away from the chaos and crowds of big cities, so they can focus on learning, serving the community, and building meaningful connections. 

“I’m looking forward to growing into a compassionate physician while serving the communities in the Central Valley,” says Dr. Huang. She said she’s also grateful for the opportunity to rotate between Hanford and Sonora because it will allow her to experience different clinical settings and patient populations.  

“I’m looking forward to applying my medical knowledge to real practice and finally helping patients,” says Dr. Chang.  

The couple attended a White Coat Ceremony on June 15, along with 26 other resident physicians who received their white coats.

The couple’s parents, siblings, and extended family all watched the ceremony, which was live streamed for people around the world to view online. 

They say matching into the same residency program is truly meaningful.

“We’ve gone through medical school, graduation, exams, applications, and the Match process side by side, so starting residency training together feels like the beginning of a very special new chapter,” says Dr. Huang. 

After visiting 25 countries and moving from place to place, the couple says it feels really nice to now call the Central Valley home.