Dentistry's Summer Institute Expands to Include Rural Indiana Students

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The Indiana University School of Dentistry’s second annual Dental Summer Institute (DSI) drew more than twice the number of participants as 2008’s program, thanks to enthusiastic word-of-mouth assessments from the students who enrolled last year and a new component of the program focusing on young people from rural Hoosier backgrounds.

Through an ongoing collaboration with Indiana’s Area Health Education Centers (AHEC), the dental school offers a summer series of educational programs that are geared toward introducing careers in dentistry to youth from areas of the state where there are shortages in the health professions workforce.

In 2009, AHEC’s Metropolitan Indianapolis-Central Indiana branch once again sponsored high school and college-level dental programs for minority students, while a Hoosier Uplands mini-grant from the Southeast/South Central branch made it possible for the school to present its first Rural Dental Summer Institute, which attracted high-schoolers from Crawford, Dearborn, Decatur, Ripley, and Rush counties. Training for the rural-based students included shadowing a dentist in their hometowns.

“The program represents a beginning in addressing the shortages of dental professionals in rural areas,” says Pamela Clark, the dental school’s assistant director of admissions and the recipient of the Hoosier Uplands grant. “Our goal was to increase the students’ awareness of the dental profession, and to generate some excitement about the many opportunities in this field.”

All three groups received a thorough introduction to dentistry, including not only pertinent information about dental school admissions requirements but also bench-top projects such as tooth restoration and lessons about infection control in the dental office and patient privacy. During one session, students examined the microorganisms in their own mouths before and after using a mouth rinse.

“The program also gave students a better understanding of how to prepare for college and dental school, which will ultimately help them become stronger applicants to the dental programs,” says Clark.

Traci Adams-Wilson, coordinator of the dental school’s diversity support services and the DSI program for minority students, isn’t surprised by the surge of participants. “I began fielding calls immediately after last year’s event,” she says. “Many dental careers programs are research-based, but we stress the clinical aspects of dentistry and offer a lot of hands-on experiences in lab settings. Students get to handle the dental materials themselves. They are looking for programs like this one.”

The caliber of this year’s DSI participants was impressive, says both Cark and Adams-Wilson, who will continue to track these students as part of the program’s follow-up.

Some have already shown an interest in keeping their ties to dentistry and the dental school close. “Of the 41 students in the Metro Indy-Central Indiana groups, 11 signed up as volunteers immediately after the program to help the dental school screen patients during this summer’s Indiana Black Expo health fair,” says Adams-Wilson.