Hello everyone, my name is Giovanna Barajas. I am soon to be 21 and I was born in Brooklyn, New York but raised and living in Queens. I live alongside my parents and my younger brother who is 9 years old. I am so thrilled and proud of myself for getting through two tough years of dental hygiene and that I will be graduating in a couple of days!

Many people always ask me, “What made you want to be in this major? Don’t you get grossed out by going into people’s mouths?” and I just laugh. Five years ago, I would not have thought that I would be going to college to become a dental hygienist because my high school was all about economics and finance. All I saw during high school were men and women in business attire speed walking through Wall Street heading to work, so I pictured myself being one of those women. The truth is, I discovered the passion in the dental field when I got braces in my freshman year of high school. I thought that all those instruments and technology was amazing when I would go in a dental office. The dental field was always in the back of my head so I decided that I wanted to discover it in college.

So returning back to when I’m asked this question all the time, I just laugh because I understand why my friends, family and patients are so curious. I mean of course I thought about having to see so many mouths when I went into this major but as I learned about the many findings and classification of case values a person can have that “gross-ness” became amazement. As soon as I knew it I was ready to scale away some teeth! These two years have been very eye-opening and filled with so many great experiences that are rewarding. I don’t regret ditching the numbers in accounting for learning the numbers of our teeth.