{"id":208963,"date":"2024-01-25T14:10:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T19:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=208963"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:33:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:33:29","slug":"whats-next-for-the-class-of-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/01\/whats-next-for-the-class-of-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Next for the Class of 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fourth-year students from the UConn School of Dental Medicine gathered this week to celebrate their residency placements for the next year.<\/p>\n

Known as \u201cthe Match,\u201d the dental students joyfully shared where they will be continuing their training after they graduate from UConn.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred percent\u2014 every student in the Class of 2024 pursuing residency training\u2014successfully matched into the program of their choosing,\u201d Dr. Steven Lepowsky, dean of the School of Dental Medicine, announced.<\/p>\n

\"Two
From left to right: Mayaan Schmidt, Tyler James, Anthony Perez-Pino, Max Einbinder, and Eamon Whelan celebrate their matches in orthodontics. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAlthough this exceptional outcome has become commonplace in our school, we should never take it for granted,\u201d Lepowsky said. \u201cThe students in the Class of 2024 will be entering some of the most desirable and competitive residency programs anywhere in the nation, and that is because of all of their hard work and dedication in the classroom, in the clinic with patients, and through service and outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of the 49 students, 18 are staying in Connecticut. Over half of the class placed in general practice residency or advanced education in general dentistry programs, while the remaining placed in specialties including oral maxillofacial surgery, oral medicine, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, and prosthodontics. Several students will head to private practice.<\/p>\n

\"Three
From left to right: Kevin Song, Ian Williams, and Frank Amaefuna celebrate their GPR placements. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt has been an honor and pleasure to watch the Class of 2024 grow into the professionals that they will be,\u201d said Dr. Sarita Arteaga, associate dean for students.<\/p>\n

The students will be traveling to Ohio, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, Maryland, Washington, California, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Florida, and New York for their residency programs.<\/p>\n

Claire Bisch, heading to Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital at Harvard, is the first student in recent years to pursue oral medicine as a specialty. Bisch was initially drawn to UConn for the combined medical and dental biomedical sciences curriculum\u2014known as MDelta. Bisch discovered her passion for oral medicine\u2014which is a specialty that focuses on the connections between oral health and overall health.<\/p>\n

\"Female
Claire Bisch is heading to Brigham and Women’s at Harvard School of Dental Medicine for oral medicine. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThroughout my time in MDelta I realized the importance\u2014both in education and in practice\u2014of systemic oral integration,\u201d Bisch said. \u201cI decided I had this passion for both dentistry as well as the medical implications that dentistry and oral health can have, and how important that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

After residency, Bisch hopes go into academia to educate students about oral systemic health.<\/p>\n

Out of the 18 students staying in Connecticut,\u00a0 seven will be continuing their education at UConn.<\/p>\n

Julia Mainelli is set to be a \u201ctriple Husky,\u201d as she attended UConn for undergrad and will be staying at UConn Health to pursue a residency in prosthodontics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the opportunity to take a patient\u2019s complex treatment plan from start to finish and be able to treat people with more advanced needs,\u201d Mainelli said about her desire to practice prosthodontics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have top-tier faculty, state-of-the-art technology, and it feels like a family,\u201d Mainelli said about the School of Dental Medicine.<\/p>\n

Maayan Schmidt will also be staying at UConn as an orthodontics resident, choosing orthodontics because she likes to witness patients\u2019 transformations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to be working with UConn faculty, being exposed to amazing technology, and be able to transform the lives of my patients,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The entire class successfully matched into their top choice residency programs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":208970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2177],"class_list":["post-208963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm","category-uconn-health","post_format-post-format-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 07:44:49","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\/208963","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\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208963"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235591,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208963\/revisions\/235591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/208970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208963"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=208963"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=208963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}