It’s not usually a scholar has such a powerful sense of what they need their profession to be that they apply to dental college earlier than graduating highschool. Caitleen Navarro, nevertheless, had the subsequent seven years of her tutorial profession path nailed down by the tip of her senior yr.

Navarro is one of some college students within the BS-DMD program, an accelerated program that permits college students to graduate with their undergraduate diploma in biology on the College of Nevada, Reno in three years earlier than attending dental college on the College of Nevada, Las Vegas’s College of Dental Drugs.

“I knew that I wished to enter drugs, however it wasn’t till highschool that I made a decision I wished to slender it all the way down to dentistry,” Navarro stated.

Navarro attended a magnet college throughout highschool that had a dentistry program. The classroom was arrange like a dentist’s workplace, and he or she took her classmates’ dental impressions and made retainers throughout class. She additionally had an internship in a dentist’s workplace throughout her senior yr.

The BS-DMD partnership between UNR and UNLV permits Nevada to retain one of the best and brightest, Faculty of Science tutorial advisor Gina Sella stated.

“As well as, the BS-DMD program gives a pathway to Dental College in three years. This reduces the price of attendance by one yr for the scholar and their households, which is interesting to many,” Sella added.

“We imagine that everybody in our neighborhood deserves entry to dental care, and so the scholars we settle for ought to replicate the various vary of sufferers we serve, so we pay attention to elements comparable to intersectionality, financial background, life experiences and the willingness to make the most of any alternatives one can discover,” stated Christine Ancajas, Affiliate Dean of Admission and Pupil Affairs on the UNLV College of Dental Drugs.

Navarro maintains a busy schedule

“When it got here to school, I attempted to discover a bunch of faculties that had an identical accelerated program,” Navarro stated. “Fortunate for me, there was UNR and UNLV doing the BS-DMD program. It was a fairly prolonged course of to use for.”

The method included offering letters of advice and a private assertion and required a excessive GPA.

“It was basically like making use of for dental college already,” Navarro stated. “But it surely was positively value it, now that I’m on a quick observe and getting all of this finished actually early. It’s positively choice that I made.”

Navarro has taken about 15 credit every semester as a result of she was capable of partake in twin enrollment that knocked off a semester of undergraduate credit. She additionally took 12 credit over the summer time. She stated that stored her busy however that she loved it.

Navarro can be a scholar within the Honors Faculty. She stated that as a result of she began school throughout the pandemic, she wished to affix the honors program to make pals. She stated she additionally wished to make the most of the early enrollment alternatives and small class sizes in honors. The extracurriculars she grew to become concerned with as a part of her honors curriculum embrace the service-oriented Nevada Circle Okay Worldwide.

Navarro was very concerned with Key Membership in highschool and was capable of transition properly into Circle Okay, the place she accomplished service hours and constructed relationships, together with these she has along with her roommates. As a member of Circle Okay, Navarro wrote letters to the aged and to incarcerated individuals throughout the peak of the pandemic. In particular person, she volunteered on the SPCA thrift retailer and different native locations. She stated these experiences additionally helped her get to know Reno extra.

Navarro’s arduous work rewarded

Navarro obtained the Board of Regents Greater Training Alternative Award scholarship for the primary three semesters she will likely be attending UNLV’s dental college. She obtained a cellphone name and needed to make clear with the caller in regards to the amount of cash she was receiving, as a result of she didn’t imagine she can be getting a lot cash. If Navarro maintains a excessive GPA in dental college, she is going to proceed to obtain the scholarship past the primary three semesters.

“I used to be actually grateful to obtain it,” Navarro stated. “I feel it is going to positively assist loads, I do know that dental college goes to be very costly.”

Navarro’s spectacular tutorial document from highschool via her school profession helped her stand out among the many incoming class of dental college students, and her neighborhood service was additionally essential to the choice to award her the scholarship.

“Her earnest want to pursue dentistry as a career, as described in her private assertion and confirmed by the wonderful shadowing alternatives she has pursued, was additionally very interesting to the admissions committee,” Ancajas stated. “She is the epitome of a aggressive, well-rounded dental applicant and scholar.”

Navarro credit her success to her work ethic and the assets the College has supplied.

“I’m often the one that would begin one thing as quickly as they had been assigned it and attempt to end it on the spot,” she stated. “I actually hate procrastination.”

Navarro added that her focus is on understanding what she’s studying slightly than attaining good grades.

“I would like to have the ability to deliver no matter I can into dentistry that’s truly useful and helpful for me.”

Navarro utliizes assets from the College Writing and Talking Middle for all her writing assignments. She additionally took half in a variety of PASS classes, which she stated had been useful for normal chemistry, and that these classes inspired her to work on the tutoring heart. She now works as a senior PASS chief, the place she oversees different PASS leaders and offers them recommendation on their tutoring classes.

“I’ve cherished it, it’s been a lot enjoyable,” Navarro stated. “Assembly college students, and having them acknowledge me from time to time, saying, ‘You had been my PASS chief!’, it’s actually enjoyable. Attending to work with the opposite leaders as properly has been a reward in itself.”

As the tip of her final semester in Reno nears, Navarro is most trying ahead to working with sufferers and placing every thing she’s discovered into observe. She added that the abilities she’s gained in teamwork will translate properly to a dental workplace.

Sella stated that Navarro got here to the College with some nice experiences already.

“Caitleen was an energetic participant when it got here to advising and her lecturers,” Sella stated, and added that the examine habits Navarro introduced along with her from highschool helped, and he or she additional developed these habits on the College. “It will serve her properly in dental college because it gives Caitleen with a developed toolkit to attract from when the quantity of content material will increase and turns into more difficult.”

Exterior of college, Navarro enjoys watching motion pictures and crocheting. She stated she seems to be ahead to the consolation of being residence in Las Vegas, however she is going to miss Reno.

“I can all the time go to,” she stated.