Summer Program Shows Students that Dental School is Within Reach

As a child growing up in the Congolese city of Kinshasa, Manu Kazadi had severe dental problems that his family could not afford to fix. After he immigrated to the U.S. in 2007, he received treatment at Boston University's Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and began to consider dentistry as a career.

Last month, Kazadi, a rising sophomore at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, was one of 25 aspiring dental and medical students to arrive at the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) campus for the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program  (SMDEP).

After completing the two-week program --which, for Kazadi, included a conversation with a student doctor and his satisfied root canal patient -- he's now convinced that he wants to be a dentist.  "It helped me know that that's what I want to do,'' said Kazadi, 19.

The national program -- started by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to boost medical and dental school enrollment among minorities -- is held annually for rising college sophomores and juniors to support their plans for careers in medicine and dentistry. Started in 1989, it combines lessons on research, science and public health with an intro to clinical basics, like making wax impressions.

This year marked the tenth anniversary the program began to emphasize dental education by adding a "d" to its title, according to Dr. Rosa Chaviano, assistant dean of admissions. "Of course, "d" stands for dentistry which is such an amazing profession, but it also stands for diversity,'' she told students.

An important aspect of the program is connecting minority students with potential role models: minority faculty, staff and current dental students who can give them advice and encouragement they might not get from others.

"It's important to see someone who looks like you,'' said Dr. Herminio Perez, RSDM's director of student and multicultural affairs. "You might be the first person in your family to go to college, so you don't have others around you who can tell you what it's like and what you need to know. You might not grow up in an environment where a lot of people become doctors or dentists.''

Kazadi said that just having roommates who were enrolled at RBHS helped motivated him to believe that he could survive dental school. "Whenever I was feeling insecure and wondering if I could really do this, they would say, 'You can. Don't give up. Just push harder!'''