Community Service

Over the last two years in school, I have participated in numerous community service activities.

November 2017: For the Greater New York Dental Convention at the Jacob Javits Center our school was in charge of the Colgate “Bright Smiles, Bright Futures” program. Here we gave screenings, demonstrations, lessons, etc. My group was in charge of the entertainment aspect of the program and chose to sing a dental version of “Ice, Ice, Baby” for the students. Instead, our song was called, “Brush, Floss, Baby”. The kids found our song to be very amusing and entertaining.

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Here is the singing group for “Brush, Floss, Baby”.

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Our entire class in a group photo after the event.

 

February 2018: I participated in an activity called “Give Kids a Smile” organized by Dr. Bilello, a pediatric dentist. This event took place at Ronald Edmund’s Learning Center in Brooklyn and included students in grades 6-8. Consent forms were filled out by parents ahead of time. My classmates and I provided brief, visual screenings to children using tongue depressors and flash lights. We had to document any important findings in the children’s mouths, such as caries and refer them to a dentist. The parents received copies of the referrals. We also applied fluoride varnish to each child who had a consent form. With the children that did not have consent forms, we focused on nutrition and brushing and flossing techniques. I had fun chatting with the students about proper dental care and even exchanged some photos of other events I participated in.

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Here are a few of us in the gym of the Ronald Edmund’s Learning Center

 

March 2018: As part of our Public Health class, my classmates and participated in a program called Family Head Start at the Neptune Center in Brooklyn, NY. We went to day care center to educate children about how to properly brush, floss, rinse. We showed the kids a video of Geena the Giraffe. Since the children are in kindergarten, we demonstrated proper toothbrushing on a stuffed animal. These kindergartens loved the video and teddy bear. They were shy at first but once we created a dialogue, they opened up and shared about their dental experiences thus far. One little girl mentioned she had to get a tooth extracted because she hurt herself.

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The stuffed animal we demonstrated on. 

Geena the Giraffe Video

March 2018: As part of our Public Health class we had to create our own service learning project. My group went to the Cooke School and Institute for special education in New York, NY. Here we taught the children about nutrition by utilizing our “healthy/ unhealthy snack board”. We also demonstrated toothbrushing on our typodonts. This event was probably the most awarding for me because I have a very important cousin in my life who is considered special. She was born premature and has a lot of developmental issues. I absolutely LOVED this project and the school!

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Photo was taken outside of the Cooke School and Institute.