ASDA's Guide to Educating and Recruiting Predental Students: Events and Activities, Exams of Dentistry

Download ASDA's Guide to Educating and Recruiting Predental Students: Events and Activities and more Exams Dentistry in PDF only on Docsity!

PREDENTAL

RECRUITMENT

HOW-TO GUIDE

American Student Dental Association

How-To Guide: Predental Recruitment

Predental students represent a unique sector of the dental community. Many of these students will matriculate into dental school soon, and those who do not will remain advocates of dentistry in their communities and lives. Therefore, educating predental students on the importance of organized dentistry and encouraging them to join ASDA as a predental member is a great way to introduce these students to their potential profession. It also presents an excellent opportunity to further expand ASDA as an organization. This guide includes a few examples of events and activities that ASDA chapters have created to educate predental students about dentistry and to recruit these students to join ASDA. Benefits of ASDA Predental Membership Predental membership in ASDA runs on a calendar year from January 1 to December 31. Check the ASDA website for the annual dues. ASDA offers many benefits for predental members and below are some that you can use in your recruitment efforts. Why Join ASDA as a Predental Member? ▪ Predental members receive the guide— Getting Into Dental School: ASDA’s Guide for Predental Students. Save time researching schools with this guide that includes detailed information on all US dental schools ▪ The ASDA website has webinars and videos. Topics range from dental specialties to wellness and advocacy. ▪ Have a dental school interview? Make sure you know what is happening in dentistry by utilizing ASDA’s publications —written for students by students to understand what is going on in today’s fast moving dental climate. ▪ Receive Polished Predental a quarterly enewsletter just for predental ASDA members. Organizing a predental day There are many directions a chapter can go with this event; however, remember predentals are excited to get face time with current students and faculty. Showcase your dental school while raising money for your chapter and communicating the many benefits of being involved with ASDA. The following is a look at some of the challenges and solutions your chapter may face in putting on your first predental day. Challenge #1: Administration difficulty or lack of support Overcome this challenge by working with your dean of admissions office from day one. Having their input on picking a name for the event goes a long way in gaining good will. While this is an ASDA event, it is important to remember that your chapter is representing the entire school to the outside world. By asking for input, you’re creating a connection for administration to the event, as well as establishing transparency. If your administration is resisting the idea of a predental day, remind them that this is an opportunity to attract highly qualified applicants. Challenge #2: Picking a name Don’t be generic. Anyone can call the event X School ASDA Predental Day , but why should you? Your event should offer an EXPERIENCE that will blow the predentals away, and the name should support that. For example, the Houston ASDA chapter decided on “Explore UTSD” for

an email two months before the event. (make sure this is possible early on. If not, you’ll want to start composing your own list of pre-health advisors to email). Challenge #7: How to handle cancellations? In order to reserve spots and create dependability with the predental attendees, you should collect money when they sign up. There will be people who will ask for a refund the day before or even after the event. They are reserving a spot that someone else REALLY wants. To help overcome this, create a refund policy and promote it with registration. One example is to honor any requests up to two weeks before your event still giving enough time to fill those spots with people from your waiting list. Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty Depending on the scope of your event, it can be a very time consuming and stressful task to oversee. To help minimize these issues, here are a few ideas.

1. Build a team. There will be many people at your school and within your chapter who want to help. If you don’t have a predental committee, create one specifically for this event. You must spread the workload in order to create the best possible experience.
2. Have a clear vision. Understand the event before you approach administration. Putting together a tentative itinerary is doable at the very beginning of the planning process. Do you want this to be a half-day event, all-day event or span over the course of weekend? How many and what type of speakers do you want? How will you fund the event? Will there be sponsors? Brainstorm extensively with your team and reach out to other chapters who are putting on predental days to share ideas and advice.
3. Make a list of everything you need. Don’t forget name tags, meals, goodie bags, printed copies, sign in/up sheets and anything you might need for lab work (glasses, burners, hand pieces etc.) Be sure to reach out to a few faculty members for any lab activities.
4. Create a timeline. Set solid deadlines for tasks and delegate tasks accordingly. Hold your team accountable to the deadlines. You do not want to be rushing to finish goodie bags the night before because it wasn’t delegated appropriately. Interesting People Give Interesting Presentations Choosing the presentations and activities is one of the most important planning aspects of this process. Do you want it to be ASDA centric? Do you want lots of hands-on activities? Do you give tours? Be aware this is a long day for attendees. Work in activities that involve moving around and break up the presentations to keep things exciting. Pick interesting speakers. Through dental school and ASDA, you have met plenty of great people with a passion for dentistry. Give them a forum to spread that energy to a captive audience hungry for information. recommended activities and presentations for a predental day event:
5. The dean or head of admissions should present to the group. This puts a face on your school and the admissions committee. When predentals send in that application, let them do so with advice given by the folks up top.

2. Tours. Most event organizers would agree that attendees appreciate seeing the building(s). Tour groups can be split up with approximately eight predentals and two to three volunteer tour guides.
3. Hands on activities. Examples include drilling class with one prep on a plastic typodont tooth, taking alginate impressions and pouring up casts, placing sealants on plastic typodont teeth, reviewing radiographs and waxing up a central incisor.
4. Q&A with a panel. Create a panel of current dental students from varied backgrounds. Select a good mix of the four dental classes that represent the demographic make-up as much as possible. You want to create an environment where the predentals feel comfortable asking questions in front of a large group, so keep that in mind when selecting panelists.
5. Mock interviews. If you have a large enough volunteer base, older predental students might be interested in a mock interview. Depending on the format of your dental school’s interview process, you may want to do mock 1-on-1 interviews or a mock group interview. It is a good idea to give dental student interviewers a paper rubric that they can fill out and give written feedback to predental students. You can choose additional activities tailored to your school or chapter. In addition to must- haves from above a few other examples include: a student life presentation, intro to organized dentistry taught by a local dentist, a short class on waxing/drilling/anatomy and, of course, admission info and advice. Breakout Sessions Often when you are considering which speakers and topics to include, it becomes difficult to fit everything in. Breakout sessions allow you to schedule multiple presentations running at concurrent times. For example, Houston’s event included eight thirty-minute breakout sessions with four running concurrently in each time slot. Keep in mind that your predental attendees come from a wide variety of backgrounds. There will be sophomores looking for direction regarding time management and study tips. There will be all-star researchers. There will be people who are re-applying. There will be people who are currently parents, and people who are planning to become parents while in dental school. There will be non-traditional students looking for advice on standing out among the younger applicants. Breakout sessions allow you to address these different groups and avoid being generic with your predental day. If you choose to incorporate them, vary the topics and pull together as many speakers as you can. Don’t give them Yahoo Answers; give them TedTalks. Tailor your topics to resonate with as many attendees as possible, and you will blow them away. For more specifics, see the sample agenda with breakout session topics, welcome letter and tour schedule starting on page 9. Predental Leadership Award If you are able to raise enough funds from your Predental Day, consider investing these funds back into predental growth and development. Houston was able to raise enough funds from

about ASDA and your dental school. Any presentation can then be followed up with a Q & A session. Alternative 3: Predental Dinner If finding a space to host a predental day at your dental school is an issue, consider hosting a predental social at a local restaurant or the student union. Reserve space large enough to give a presentation and allow dental and predental students to mingle. Begin this event with a presentation on the benefits of an ASDA predental membership and information about your school. Following the presentation with a reception will facilitate informal socializing between dental and predental students. Be sure to heavily advertise this event like you would a predental day. Also be sure to check schedules of dental and predental students to avoid scheduling conflicts with major university events, holidays, etc.

Explore UTSD Schedule Time Location Event Add’l info 8:00- 8:30am 4310 Registration/Breakfast Donuts provided by ASDA or sponsor 8:30am- 8:50am 4330 Welcome & Dean’s Address Dr. Valenza: Dentistry, vision of school 8:50am- 9:15am 4330 Admissions Overview Dr. Pierpont: Admissions process 9:15am- 9:45am 4330 Student Life Laura Nelson, Andrew Naeger, Paola Salazaar 9:45am - 10:30am Guided Tours Tour guides will be ASDA officers and other student volunteers 10:30am - 11:00am 4330 Intro to dental anatomy & Operative Chris Thorburn & Alex Edgerly 11:00am- 12:00pm Group A: Preclinical lab Group B: Sim lab Hands-on waxing Class 1 prep on typodont Pre-prepped horse teeth & #30 O 12:00- 1:00pm 4310 Lunch and DAT prep advice Sponsored by Kaplan 1:00pm- 2:00pm Group B: Preclinical lab Group A: Sim lab Hands-on waxing Class 1 prep on typodont Pre-prepped horse teeth & #30 O 2:00pm- 2:45pm 4330 Intro to Organized Dentistry & ASDA Organized dentistry overview, how ASDA fits in. Katie Sowa, Graham Reed, Adrien Lewis 2:45pm – 2:55pm 4330 Explanation of breakout sessions and introduction to topics. Chris Thorburn 3:00pm- 3:25pm Multiple Rooms Break out: 4310, 4320, 4330, 4340 See below for details 3:30pm- 3:55pm Multiple Rooms Break out: 4310, 4320, 4330, 4340 See below for details 4:00pm- 5:00pm 4330, 4340 Q/A panel dental students Various dental students 5:00pm- 5:15pm 4330 Closing remarks Chris Thorburn

On behalf of the American Student Dental Association and The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston, I would like to personally thank everyone for coming to Explore UTSD Predental Day! We’re very excited to welcome everyone to our school and offer you a glimpse into what life is like as a dental student. Today you will be hearing from both Dean Valenza and Dr. Pierpont who is the head of the admissions committee. Current students will give presentations on student life, organized dentistry and offer a Q&A session at the end of the day. This is a great opportunity to really pick our brains and get insider information about how we handled undergrad, applying and attending dental school. Included in the agenda are eight breakout sessions of which you can pick two to attend. Please make sure to sign up for the sessions that are most interesting to you as we are limiting a maximum number of 30 people for each session. You can sign-up for these in the lobby area near the elevators on the 4th^ floor. We hope that at the end of today you come away with a greater appreciation for life at UTSD, as well as the important role that organized dentistry, ASDA and the ADA play in helping make dentistry one of the top professions in America. In closing, I want to congratulate you all for choosing dentistry as your future profession. It is truly an amazing industry! Hook Em, Chris Thorburn ASDA District 9 Trustee

UTSD Tours Start time 9: Total Time – 45 minutes (5 minutes per station) The location listed is your start location. You will rotate with your groups, just like orientation, to the next location based upon the number. If you reach 9 and it isn’t your last station, take the main elevators up to 4 and proceed to the library. The order is designed to flow in a direction to make each station the next in line or closest to your previous station.

1. Library - Paola, Rebecka, Eric
   • Just walk them around, talk about its use.
2. Lecture hall 4th^ floor – Andrew, Franzen, Yarima
   • Use 4330
3. Sim Lab – Mary, Patty, Graves
   • Show them a dummy
4. Table top lab – Graham, Sendelbach
   • Waxing
5. Student Lounge – Laura, Max
6. Book store/patient waiting area – Adrien, Terrall
   • Not a lot here, good time to let them ask questions.
7. Second floor (dispensary and orange bay) – Glennis, Krystle
   • Just show them the size of our clinics. Dispensary will be closed but explain that’s where you get supplies.
8. 1st^ floor clinic – Marissa, Alden
   • Show them endoscopes, walk past the specialty clinics (OS, Pedo, UC)
9. 1st^ floor waiting area/lobby area – Nicole, Hillary
   • Show them the two historical/information areas to the left of the front door and back towards Cooley.

Houston ASDA Predental Leadership Award

Interview Questions/Topics

1. In your words what makes a great leader?
2. What does it mean to be a leader in dentistry?
3. Please explain the importance of organized dentistry and the role ASDA plays in it.
4. Anything else you would like to add about yourself.

Chapter Projects

Name of project: VCU Predental Day ASDA chapter: Virginia Description (where, when and details of project): VCU has an annual Predental Day in which all of the predental clubs at Virginia’s large universities are invited to participate. (Eighty to 90 students from seven different universities participated last year.) The event takes place during the spring semester and is free to the predental students. Lunch is funded by a sponsored by and the VCU predental club. VCU Predental Day Itinerary: 12pm- Check in (Once the students check in they are organized into three different groups- Groups A, B, and C.) 12:30pm- Group A- Dental Simulation Lab (predental students do Class I preps on tooth #19 on the Dent- Sim mannequins. Simulation teeth are donated by the VCU admissions department.) Group B- Tour of the dental school facilities with current dental students Group C - Pizza lunch with D2s and D3s 1pm- Group A - Tour of the dental school Group B- Lunch Group C - Simulation Lab 1:30pm- Group A- Lunch Group B- Tour of the dental school Group C- Simulation Lab 2pm- All groups meet in Lecture Hall 2:15- Address from Student Government/ASDA President – Welcome and introduction to ASDA and VCU 2:45- Dean of VCU Dental School – Welcome/Curriculum at VCU 3:15- Dean of Admissions – Requirements for VCU admission and the admission process 3:45- Question and Answer Session with Deans and current dental students

Name of project: Illinois Predental Consortium ASDA chapter: Illinois Description (where, when and details of project): The Illinois Predental Consortium is an effort that the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry (UIC COD) started in the fall of 2007. The Consortium consists of predental club members from seven universities in Illinois as well as members from ASDA, the ADA, the Chicago Dental Society, the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation, the Illinois State Dental Society and the UIC COD. The purpose of the Consortium is to connect Illinois predental students on a state-wide level with the goal of sharing resources and interests, collaborating to increase predental mentoring, educating predental students on oral health disparities in the state and increasing access to care for children in Illinois. The Consortium was funded through a grant from the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation. The initiative is now funded by the UIC COD. Consortium Activities: ▪ Annual Consortium Meeting – August at the UIC COD ▪ Predental Conference – February at Chicago Dental Society’s Mid-Winter Meeting ▪ Outreach – Give Kids a Smile Day (2nd^ Friday in February) ▪ Mentoring – Mentoring Dinner Meeting (November) ▪ Club Meetings ▪ Dental School Visits

Name of project: Annual Predental Day ASDA chapter: Nova Southeastern Description (where, when and details of project): Nova Southeastern Dental School hosts an annual Predental Day at their school, sponsored by Nova’s ASDA chapter. There is no charge to predental students to attend the event. Students from across the nation are invited to attend. Itinerary: 8:30am Check-in and Breakfast 9:00am Welcome Address (by the Predental Chair at Nova) 9:05am Our Chapter, What We Are and What We Do. (Nova ASDA Chapter President gives description of ASDA at Nova) 9:30am NSU Dental Curriculum (discussion of curriculum by the Assistant Dean for Curriculum and Educational Affairs) 10:00am Kaplan Testing Center (overview of the DAT and requirements) 10:30am National ASDA (description of ASDA on a national level) 11:00am How to Be A Better Applicant (discussion given by the Assistant Dean of Admissions) 11:30am Mock Interview (with a professor from Nova) 12:00pm Tour of the facilities (with current dental students) 12:30pm Lunch and Networking (sponsored by Kaplan)

Dear Predental Students, UCLA ASDA is excited to announce the first ever Application Core Build-Up Day on Saturday, May 4, from 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., at UCLA School of Dentistry! This event is geared to help predental students that will be applying in the upcoming AADSAS cycle that opens June 3. We will be joined by Dr. Mito, Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Personnel, and Dr. Bibb, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, as well as plenty of current UCLA Dental Students that will offer words of advice for the arduous process of applying to dental school. The main focus of Core Build-Up Day will be components shared by all dental schools: personal statements, interviews and understanding the current state of dentistry. Unfortunately, we are only able to offer attendance to a maximum of 40 predental students who are getting ready to apply this cycle, with priority given to current predental ASDA members. Please note the following:

1. Attendance to Core Build-Up Day does not guarantee admissions into UCLA or any other dental school. (We were told by administration and the legal adviser for the school that we have to mention this.)
2. You must bring a complete draft of your personal statement and bring a copy with you. We will be having a personal statement workshop with the opportunity to have your personal statement reviewed.
3. Please dress as if you are attending an actual dental school interview (business attire). We are trying to best simulate the experience for the mock interviews. Dressing the part will be great practice!
4. Please arrive promptly (ideally 15-30 minutes before our scheduled 8:30 a.m. start time). We have a full morning of events planned for you and want to stay on schedule.
5. You are responsible for parking. Unfortunately parking is still enforced on Saturdays. You can park in the pay-by-space spots in the CHS parking structure, which cost $11 for the full day.
6. Please bring a notepad and pen/pencil.
7. Besides parking, participation in Core Build-Up Day is free!
8. Sign up here : [Google Doc Link] Although this is short notice, we hope many of you can attend, and we look forward to working with you to help make the application process less stressful! Attached is a copy of the schedule. Please feel free to email me at [EMAIL]. If you have any questions. Best,

Core Build-Up Day Schedule

8:30 – 9:00am Introduction 9:00-10:00am Personal Statements & Review On-the-Spot Essay: What can you provide to the class of 2018? Personal Statements: Examples from previous classes. Small group workshop. 10:00 – 10:30am Choosing the Right School for you PowerPoint presentation after doing research on popular schools that CA residents attend (California schools, UNLV, ASDO, NYU, BU, Columbia, UPenn). Additional information will include other factors that play a significant role in determining which schools to apply. 10:30 – 11:00am Hot Topics CDA Class Representative will present a condensed overview of major current topics that CDA, ADA, and ASDA view to be important for future and current dentists to be aware of. 11:00-12:00pm Interviews / Interview Strategy Attendees need to dress as if it were a dental school interview. Will simulate two interview styles used by dental schools: a student one-on- one interview with a brief feedback session at the conclusion of the interview and a small group interview. 12:00-1:00pm Networking Lunch Informal networking lunch with current dental students.