CaNINE Fall 2014

SEPTEMBER 14, 2014 THE CANINE

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D9 EXEC PLANNING MEETING 2013

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TEXAS SCHOOLS UNITE: DENTAL OLYMPICS 2014

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ATTN. ALL PREDENTS: UT-HOUSTON’S PRE-

DENTAL EVENTS

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YOUR NEW D9 TRUSTEE: CHRIS

THORBURN

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SPOTLIGHT: UT-HOUSTON


District 9 Cabinet Retreat Ashkaan Bahreini, President-Elect, Oklahoma '17

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District 9’s Leaders Taking a

Break from Business!

Many events affecting the lives of dental students happened during the summer of this year. While many students were busy on vacation, working a summer job, studying for boards, research or a myriad of other things, the leaders of ASDA's District 9 were busy hosting their first ever cabinet retreat.

This retreat was neither a series of team building exercises, nor was it an excuse to get together just to have a good time. Instead this two day retreat consisted of a mixture of business for the district, networking, and even a little bit of studying. Although our official business didn't start until noon, every morning began with many of the attendees studying while others shared testing strategies and study materials. Friday afternoon consisted of meetings between the chapter leaders and the District 9 Trustee and Communications Chair on a chapter by chapter basis. By meetings with each chapter individually we were able to share ideas between chapters, and assist chapters on dealing with issues that they have had in the past. Saturday's schedule was similar, but instead of chapter leaders meeting, it consisted of meetings between the district committees and the District 9 Trustee and Communications Chair. Although we have been meeting with the committees on a regular basis prior to the retreat, what we were able to accomplish with those meetings pales in comparison to the amount of work and progress we were able to accomplish here.

While not every district has a cabinet retreat, it is a necessity to ensure the continued growth of districts and the chapters that comprise them. By increasing cross-chapter collaboration not only helps with growth, but also strengthens the leadership of the district.


2014 Texas Dental Olympics Alicia Bush, UTSD-Houston Vice President

The Annual Texas Dental Olympics was recently hosted and organized by The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston’s Student Council. The Dental Olympics allows students to catch up with old friends and meet dental students from other programs around the state of Texas. Enthusiasm and energy were sky high despite the early check in time of 8:00 AM. Every event in the competition was tough with Dental Schools fielding outstanding players. The first event of the morning was the 5K race following a route around Rice University, won by Doug Kebodeaux from UT Houston. Other outdoor games of football, soccer, volleyball and softball were played on the University of Texas Recreational Fields. The string of victories continued for UT Houston, winning Softball with the help of UT Houston’s Carson Henley, Volleyball with the help of UT Houston’s David Stonestreet and the men’s Soccer event. Golf was played off campus at Country Place in Pearland with Baylor taking first place. Inside the UT Recreational Center, students participated in swimming, billiards, dodge ball, double and single tennis matches and basketball. All strived to out come out on top. Overall results for 2014 Dental Olympics were close, with all three schools earning victories in various sports. First place was awarded to The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. In second place was Baylor College of Dentistry and last, but not least, was UT Houston School of Dentistry at Houston. After months of planning for the event, and after the blood, sweat and tears of competition, the event successfully came to a close. Participants and volunteers had bittersweet feelings as another year of Olympics ended. Students will have to wait until next year to battle for the honor and rights of being Gold Medalists.

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UTSD ASDA Pre-Dental Events Alex Edgerly

The 2013-‐2014 school year was a busy year for ASDA at UTSD and an even busier year for our ASDA Pre-‐dental Representatives. In June, ASDA held a mock interview event that was offered to pre-‐dental students who had hopes of being apart of the incoming class of 2018. The pre-‐dental students were asked to dress to impress and were not aware that the dental students would be dressed in clean, pressed, white coats imposing as faculty for the day. !The chapter held its very Jirst ASDA Interview Preparation Day on June 7, 2014. Thirty-‐one sharply dressed pre-‐dental students from various undergraduate institutions arrived at The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston to participate in a unique half-‐day interview preparation event. Students were greeted with donuts and coffee, and then were quickly welcomed with an unexpected essay assignment on “Why you belong at UTSD”. The essay was followed by a warm welcome from faculty and an introduction from the ASDA representatives. The students were split into groups that would participate in essay critiquing and mock interviews for the remainder of the day. Students rotated between 4 different “faculty” (dental students in white coats) for a total of 15 minutes per station for the hour. Each “faculty” was assigned 3 different hot topic questions to ask the students for the Jirst 10 minutes and then feedback on their responses was given in the last Jive minutes. While one group was being grilled with questions, the other group had a laid back experience (in which their essays from earlier in the morning were critiqued).

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Pre-‐dental students question dental

students during the Q&A session at the end of the event.


Lastly, the two large groups came together for the Q&A session by 5 current dental students. The pre-‐dental students took this time to ask all the burning questions that they not yet had the opportunity to ask. Our current dental students gave various tips and tricks, such as what to expect, how to deliver thank you letters, how early to arrive, and even how to survive once accepted into dental school. !The students were given many documents and other tools to aid them in their preparation for the real interview day, as well as invaluable dental advice. Pre-‐dental students who were a member of ASDA were given a pre-‐doctoral mentor to seek out for additional questions or help along the application/interview road. The pre-‐dental students left our ASDA Interview Preparation Day with a greater understanding of the interview process and also a greater conJidence in their interviewing skills. These pre-‐dental students had nothing but wonderful things to say about the event and were very thankful for all of our hard work. ASDA at UTSD is very excited about next year’s event and is planning to make it an even greater success!

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3rd year dental student, Marisa Zitterich, interviews an attending pre-‐dental student.

Pre-‐dental students aggressively create their answers to

“Why do you belong at UTSD?” at the start of the ASDA


Meet Your New District 9 Trustee: Chris Thorburn

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When the D9 leadership came together this summer my hope was that putting people face-to-face would translate into the sharing and development of new and creative ideas. What has developed since is beyond anything I could have imagined. Events like Thrush Week, the ASDA Advocacy Throwdown, and of course D9 schools nominating one another for the ALS challenge happen because of communication and new leadership. !Now this isn’t to say that the D9 Cabinet is one big party planning committee but rather a group of people who really like to share ideas and experiences. We’ve seen incredible improvement in chapter strength with nearly every chapter re-writing, updating, or creating a set of by-laws. We’ve had countless new positions and committees created across Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Students have stepped into leadership positions that weren’t even created until recently and from these new leaders come opportunities and growth that we never saw coming. !With all of that said we’re now getting into the grit and grind of the 2014-2015 school year. While a lot of change and growth has occurred over the past few months there is still much on the horizon. Gentlemen prepare your mustaches (Movember). Students prepare your computers (Engage). And everyone prepare your outfits for NLC (trust me you want to go). We’re just getting the train going in D9 and with the way we’re headed I foresee many Gold Crown Awards for this district... Get on board.


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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN YOUR DISTRICT?

COLORADO OKLAHOMA UT-‐HOUSTON

SAN ANTONIO BAYLOR

• 5th Gear Kids

• Fall Vendor Fair

• Shimstock Talent Show

• GetFIT Yoga

• Ice Cream Social

• Open Wide Golf Tourn.

• Leadership Retreat

•ADPAC Drive

• Leadership Retreat

• Thirsty Thursday


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• COMOM • COMOM

• DentFest

• GetFit 5K

• Pre-‐Dental Sim. Course

• Pizza&Politics

• Dodgeball Tourn.

• Golf Tourn.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN YOUR DISTRICT?

COLORADO OKLAHOMA UT-‐HOUSTON

SAN ANTONIO BAYLOR


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1 2Across:

33 Author-of-the-article-"UTSD-ASDA-Pre9Dental-Events"

4 56 The-new-District-9-Trustee

67 The-number-of-pre9dental-students-who-attended-Interview-Preparation-Day

10 This-summer,-D9-hosted-its-first-ever-Cabinet-_________7 8

11 "Everyone,-prepare-your-outfits-for-______"

Down9

1 The-winners-of-the-Dental-Olympics10

2 The-chapter-highlighted-in-this-issue-of-the-D9-Canine

4 "We're-getting-into-the-________-and-the-grind-of-the-201492015-school-year"11

5 The-first-event-of-the-Dental-Olympics

8 Houston-held-its-first-ever-_____________-Preparation-Day

9 The-2nd-place-school-in-the-Dental-Olympics

GET DISTRACTED!

Find the answers to this crossword puzzle throughout the newsletter! After you’ve completed it, upload a picture of your

puzzle to Facebook and tag ASDA District 9 to enter in a raffle to win a prize!


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Documents

CaNINE Fall 2014