ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) -- Earlier today, The inaugural graduating class of LECOM's Elmira campus celebrated their new assignments as part of their match day ceremonies. 

Match day serves as a momentous occasion for medical students, and for the students at LECOM, it's years of work and effort turning into their first residency assignments.

"Just being able to use what I've put into this, time, money, effort, just being able to have some return on that and being able to give back to the community as much as I can," said Michael Demeritt, who was matched into Diagnostic Radiology at Arnot Health.

It's a historic and emotional day that these LECOM Elmira students will cherish for a lifetime. All of them embarking on a journey that started four years ago -- about 50 percent fortunate enough to be able to continue their medical careers in the Southern Tier.

"We've gotten to know the patient population and the different physicians practicing in this community and to be able to keep it local and keep continuing to grow those relationships and care for the patients is also very rewarding," remarked Samantha Basile, who was matched to Internal Medicine at Arnot Ogden Medical Center."

"It's truly unbelievable. Four years of such hard work being at the brand new medical school here in Elmira, New York. It's truly been so rewarding to get to be a part of history being made here in Elmira, and I'm really excited to be staying local where I can contribute to our local community," commented Darby Kasper, a match at Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital.

Excitement also was found at the administrative level today. LECOM looks to build on the momentum set by the first set of graduates to make Elmira a medical education destination. Graduates matched at a wide range of locations -- some local such as Arnot and Guthrie -- and some taking their talents nationally through U-P-M-C and Vanderbilt University.

LECOM Elmira's Associate Dean of Academics, Dr. Richard Terry, shares that vision of optimism, "Here we are producing the next generation of physicians. Recruiting locally, training locally, and now retaining locally to do residency in New York state. That was the goal of why we came here, that's our mission, and we're accomplishing it."