Dentistry in the Community Grant recipients share outreach successes

To kick off ASDA’s Week of Service, we are highlighting the achievements of the 2017 Dentistry in the Community grant recipients. In February 2017, five chapters were awarded $500 each to develop and implement a program or event that focuses on the prevention of dental disease and/or the promotion of oral health for any underserved population within their community. Here, we’re highlighting each of those events.

Health and wellness: there’s an app for that!

Meeting your health goals can be challenging, especially when finding a balance between healthy living and dental school. Your smart phone can be the perfect health tool, but you need to choose the right app. Health, exercise and nutrition can become both fun and accessible with the right apps. Whether you are taking your first steps towards a healthy lifestyle or looking to re-vamp your fitness routine, these four free health apps may make a difference!

There’s no such thing as a free lunch (and learn)

It’s 11:45 a.m. My heart is pounding and my palm are sweating as I prepare to run downstairs. Although the event doesn’t start until noon, I cannot possibly risk missing my free lunch. Yes, folks, there is a lunch and learn today and I want — no, need — to get my hands on that free lunch. Some students may turn to leave as soon as they find out that it’s “only pizza,” but I choose to stay. After all, you can never really have too much pizza.

Have you ever stopped to wonder why are these event organizers so nice to us? Why do those vendors and companies provide us with free perks like pizza and toothpaste in exchange for an hour of our time?

Finding time when you don’t have any

PaskettIt’s now 11 p.m. You’re still on campus studying for tomorrow morning’s oral pathology exam which you’re ill-prepared for. You’ve got an ASDA lunch and learn tomorrow that you have to organize, and you’re seeing your first patient in the afternoon. You also have two unfinished fixed pros projects in the sim lab that you have to complete before the end of the week.

Hitting the big time: from local to national leader

danielle marciniak lobby dayTransitioning from chapter level leadership to national ASDA has been as amazing as it has been challenging. I was recently elected District 10 Trustee, and even though I worked to learn the position as much as I could last year, it has still been a wild ride with so much more for me to absorb. From flying out to our first board meeting, site tours for the district meeting, emails, conference calls and more emails, I have already learned a lot. The greatest difference I have found in national leadership is the way and the frequency in which you interact with others.