Student ideas tapped for diversity

San Antonio鈥?Impressions” is a Student National Dental Association program that provides support to potential dental students by helping college students learn more about careers in dentistry and the dental school application process.

Impressions offers a way for potential dental school applicants from underrepresented groups to visit dental schools; hold meetings with students and faculty members; gain valuable insight into the admissions process, dental school curriculum, the Dental Admissions Test and financial aid programs; and sometimes engage in mock interviews as a way to prepare for the admissions process. Participants say Impressions has made dentistry an option for health profession-oriented students who never would have thought a career in dentistry possible.

The program is just one example of a wide-range of initiatives undertaken by dental students and organizations like the SNDA, the Hispanic Student Dental Association, the Society of American Indian Dentists Student Chapter and the American Student Dental Association to increase the number of underrepresented minorities who seek careers in dentistry.

The ADA’s Student Ambassador Program brings these groups and other national organizations together to provide a forum to initiate and expand student-to-student recruitment activities like Impressions. With funding from GlaxoSmithKline, the program held its annual meeting in October 2008 during the ADA annual session in San Antonio, with U.S. dental schools sponsoring 58 student ambassadors.

“As a dean, I appreciate the leadership shown by other deans in using scarce resources to move this program forward,” said Dr. James Hupp, dean of the East Carolina University School of Dentistry. Dr. Hupp is a member of the Council on Dental Education and Licensure and currently chairs the council’s Career Guidance and Diversity Activities Committee, which coordinates student ambassador activities.

“These are challenging economic times for dental schools, and ensuring that their student ambassadors have an opportunity to attend these annual events shows the deans’ appreciation for the value of diversity,” he said.

CDEL’s Career Guidance and Diversity Activities Committee began the Student Ambassador Program with the recognition that dental students from underrepresented groups are powerful mentors for college and high school students from similar backgrounds who may be considering a career in the health professions. Many dental students鈥攅specially those from disadvantaged backgrounds鈥攈ave often had to overcome significant obstacles in gaining admission to dental school.

“Students’ personal undergraduate experiences give insight into how an ambassador might effectively reach out to other underrepresented groups,” said Melina Rada-Johnson, a student at the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Dentistry and a member of the Hispanic Student Dental Association who participated in the 2008 program and served as a member of its planning committee.

“The program allows student ambassadors to think collaboratively and critically about how to enhance diversity in dentistry,” said Ms. Rada-Johnson. “Everyone had so much positive energy, ideas and ambitions, that it drives you to make a difference.”

“We think dental students can have more of an impact exposing and recruiting middle and high school students and college students into dentistry than any other model currently in place,” said Matthew Richards, a dental student and student ambassador for the Marquette University School of Dentistry and a member of the Society of American Indian Dentists Student Chapter.

“Through the Student Ambassador Program, dental students from all races and backgrounds can share their stories and figure out ways to minimize those obstacles for prospective dental students for underrepresented ethnic groups,” said Mr. Richards. “There is a disparity in dental care that exists in ethnic groups, and we need to attract prospective students from underrepresented groups to help fix that disparity. That is the goal of the Student Ambassador Program.”

Now entering its fourth year, the Student Ambassador Program is moving toward emphasizing collaboration between students and dental school admissions officers and college prehealth advisors.

“There are ways that dental schools are seeking to diversify their student bodies, and the work of the student ambassadors could really enhance those efforts,” said Dr. Hupp. “We’d like to see students not only initiate successful programs on their own, but work with their institutions to see how they can combine forces for even greater impact.”

The most recent meeting of the student ambassadors provided an opportunity for the ambassadors to partner with health advisors and build on the awareness that both groups share similar goals and values in promoting dentistry as a profession. Representatives of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions served as panelists during the meeting鈥攕haring information on the advising process and offering ways to work together to promote
dentistry. Ideas like implementing regional meetings between advisors and ambassadors, communicating with advisors through their national publications and referring requests for dental career presentations to local ambassadors were all discussed.

“Prehealth advisors provide guidance to college students seeking careers in health care,” said Dr. Hupp. “There is much our student ambassadors can do to educate those advisors about why they decided to seek a career in dentistry and how college students would benefit from the same career choice. We want to make sure that they understand all the wonderful things about the dental profession and are in a position to offer the best advice to college students who may be interested in pursuing a dental career.”

If it’s not already happening, student ambassadors are being encouraged to work more closely with dental school admissions officers, added Dr. Hupp.

“At some dental schools, there is no collaboration with admissions officers,” he said. “We want to highlight possible ways of collaborating with ambassadors and improve diversity activities.” Beginning this year, the annual Student Ambassador Program meeting will be changed to coincide with the dental school admissions officers’ annual meeting, he added.

“I’m very impressed with the evolution of the Student Ambassador Program,” said Dr. Hupp. “I’ve been charging students with taking ownership of the program and this year they really took that to heart. We had dedicated, hard-working students develop a sound program based on their own ideas. This is a group of dental students who are passionate about their careers and helping members of underrepresented groups achieve the same success they’ve had.”

Rounding out the meeting’s agenda included a discussion of tracking strategies, ways to use the ADA Career Pathways Network on ADA.org, a newsletter that features successful outreach programs and examples of student-to-student recruitment under way at the Howard University College of Dentistry and the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine.

For more information on the Student Ambassador Program, contact Beverly Skoog, career guidance programs liaison, at Ext. 2390 or skoogb@ada.org.