{"id":171635,"date":"2021-04-18T18:58:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T22:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=171635"},"modified":"2021-04-18T18:58:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T22:58:20","slug":"njeri-dodson-21-school-of-dental-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2021\/04\/njeri-dodson-21-school-of-dental-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"Njeri Dodson &#8217;21, School of Dental Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Why did you choose UConn?<\/strong><br \/>\nI\u2019m originally from Bridgeport, and I always wanted to go back to Bridgeport; it\u2019s an underserved community. I liked the idea of staying in state for dental school.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are your plans after graduation?<\/strong><br \/>\nMy plan is to start my residency at Hartford Hospital, then hopefully making my way back to Bridgeport. I\u2019m looking into either community health centers or private practice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How has UConn prepared you for the next chapter?<\/strong><br \/>\nUConn provided me an excellent education. I feel well prepared to move forward in dentistry: the faculty was great, and dedicated. The school has a really great support system with classmates and with staff, and a broad network of graduates. There was support every step of the way, in clinic, classes and residency. Our best interests were always kept in mind.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s something you learned in class that you\u2019ll always remember?<\/strong><br \/>\nDr. Lamont MacNeil taught a public health course. It stood out to me because it talked about disparities among minority patients. There\u2019s such a disparity in oral health among people of minority ethnicities. It really inspired me to do my best to make a difference. The way that I\u2019ll do it? Go back to Bridgeport.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What surprised you about UConn?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe strong support system. When I went in, I thought it would be me, by myself, trying to push myself. But it was really a team effort!<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s one thing everyone should do at UConn?<\/strong><br \/>\nVolunteer. One year we volunteered at Mission of Mercy. It was special because there were so many different providers: students, hygienists, assistants, dentists, all doing free dental work for two days straight. It\u2019s a great environment, the patients and the providers are happy. You appreciate what you\u2019re doing the most when you go outside the classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Njeri Dodson reflects on her time at UConn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":171636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-171635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-quote"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 04:41:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171637,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171635\/revisions\/171637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/171636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171635"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=171635"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=171635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}