One sunny spring evening, I had the pleasure of attending a Colorado New Dentist Committee study club meeting focused on ‘success as a New Dentist in the first 5 years.’ We had the honor of listening to guest speaker Mark Bonnett of North Star Resource Group give a lecture on what it takes to start a practice or be a successful associate employee. What I found most interesting (due to its relevance to me as a current dental student) was his later focus on loan repayment, and managing finances once the big paychecks first start coming in.

As soon-to-be dentists, the idea of ‘what the heck am I going to do after graduation?’ is a thought that weighs heavily on our minds. Sure, some of us will head to residencies (aka school forever), but for the rest of us, finding jobs right out of the gate is imperative as our student loans suddenly turn from Monopoly money into the real deal. After listening to Mark speak, one theme of his lecture became very clear: cash is king!

Since the day I signed my life away to the federal lenders, I had one thing in mind… “I’m going to pay these suckers off as quickly as possible.” What I came to realize in the first 5 five minutes of Mark’s lecture, is that this might not be the best thing to do. There are several alternatives all focusing around the idea that while we’ve amassed a large sum of debt, we should take our time in paying it off. Say you did choose to pay off your loans quickly by applying entire paychecks at a time to them. … What if you have an emergency? Or lose your job? Sure, you’ve got no debt… , but you’ve also got no money. The following are some suggestions for different ways to maximize your cash and minimize your loan payments:

Income Based Loan Repayment/Pay As You Earn Repayment

This is essentially setting your payments to correspond with your income:

Earn a lot --> pay a lot

Unemployed --> pay little (or even nothing.)

These programs are designed to base payments on income and family size, and payments are the same no matter how much you owe. Essentially, these programs are great for the dentist not making a lot of money because you’ll have more cash flow, rather than applying entire paychecks to student debts. A drawback of these programs is that while you’re not paying too much income into loans, you’re still collecting interest on every dollar that remains. That being said, if after 20 or 25 years (depending on the program) you haven’t paid off your loans, they are forgiven and your debts are eliminated!   Too good to be true? Probably. The catch is that the amount forgiven is taxable, meaning that if $50,000 of your debt is erased, you will be expected to pay taxes on that in a lump sum amount. Should this be the route you choose to pay back your loans, make sure you’re saving setting some of your cash aside to pay this.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

These programs are tied to income-based repayment programs but follow a different set of rules. In order to qualify you must work full-time for 120 months in a non for profit capacity- potentially in a setting that doesn’t pay well. Some residency programs can even count toward your time commitment, as long as they’re not-for-profit university or hospital programs. Basically most 501(c)3 (not for profit), state, federal (yes military counts) or academic opportunities could count. A benefit of the public service IBR is that the amount of debt forgiven is not taxed!

Consolidation

By consolidating your loans, you extend your payback window to 30 years, lowering your monthly payments. Consolidation also allows you to blend your interest rates, should you have some higher and some lower. A benefit of loan consolidation is that by lowering your monthly payments, you’ll have more cash flow. A couple drawback are that, once again, you’ll be collecting interest on those loans over the 30 years to it takes to pay them back.   Also you could potentially be increasing your interest rate when the low rates are combined with higher rates for the weighted average. Keep in mind you can always pay the loans off early. Even if the loan repayment period is 30 years, there is nothing stopping you paying off the debt in 10 years or even sooner, once you get on your feet and have more stable cash flow.

(Some popular loan consolidation companies include SoFi and CommonBond, check these out if you're interested!)

After reviewing some of these loan repayment options, I hope you realize that there is no right or wrong way of paying back your loans. Every individual’s situation situation is different, and the pros and cons of each option should be reviewed before choosing which is right for you. The idea of lengthening your payment window stems from the idea that cash is king, meaning that having money set aside opens many doors for different options. When banks are deciding whether or not to loan you money for a house or a practice, they look deeply into your Debt : Income Ratio (This is the amount of monthly payments you are committed to make like credit cards, car payments, mortgages, etc., verses the amount of income you make on a monthly basis). By keeping your minimum payment lower, you have more flexibility to take on debts like a home or a practice.  With this in mind, taking the time to pay back your loans while stashing away some funds will help you immensely when you’re trying to make a large purchase or investment.

After wrapping up discussion of loan repayment options and the idea of holding on to some of your debt in order to save money, Mark closed the lecture by answering a couple of FAQ’s questions proposed by the audience.

Q: Which loans should I pay off first?

A: Not considering consolidation? Put your money where the interest rates are higher, and pay those off first.

Is it smart to make large purchases even though I have a mountain of loans?

A: Historically speaking, it is not necessarily a bad time to be in debt. What does this mean? Interest rates are relatively low and will only go up from here. If you’re going to make a large purchase, such as a new car, it is smarter to finance it now that interest rates are low, rather than waiting until you have less debt and biting the bullet on higher interest rates.

Which comes first, the practice or the house?

A: It depends on how much debt you have, and what your debt:income ratio is. Banks are used to seeing dentists graduate with a massive accumulation of debt, take out a loan for a practice, then become successful and be able to pay the loans back. Purchasing a practice is more about the cash flow of the practice than your personal debt load. Banks look at Practice Loans differently than home loans because the practice produces income to pay the debt. Homes are just an expense, and thus the banks look at these types of loans only by looking at the strength of the borrower. If you have a bunch of practice debt, a mountain of Student Loan debt and minimal income because you started your practice in the last year or so, it will be more difficult to purchase a home.

More Information:

For more information on student loans and repayment options, check out the following resources:

http://studentloanhelp.org

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/

https://www.alltuition.com

If you've still got some questions, or would like to talk to Mark Bonnett himself, feel free to email him at Mark.Bonnett@northstarfinancial.com

I have never been the type of person to be on student government or run for positions that required any sort of political understanding. Needless to say my knowledge about what we would be doing at National Lobby Day in Washington D.C. was at a minimum. I was chosen to go and figured that I would take more of a backseat approach, learning what it was like to be involved with ASDA at the national level while watching the experts do the lobbying, but I would do much more than that.

Monday was our first day in D.C., and it was spent entirely at the hotel. We had lectures, meetings, and breakout sessions that were all meant to be informative and help us in our lobbying efforts the next day. The two specific bills that we would be lobbying for were the H.R. 539: Dental Health Act and the H.R. 649: Student Loan Refinancing Act. H.R. 539 would allow programs like the Mission of Mercy (MOM) and Give Kids a Smile access to readily available funds ($15 million) from the CDC that they were previously not able to apply for. H.R. 649 would allow students to refinance their loans in the future if the federal student loan interest rate were to dip below what they had previously borrowed it for.

The morning was a mix of presentations on the details of both of these bills, what to focus on when speaking to legislators, and some presentations by different sponsors. We broke for lunch, where I had the opportunity to sit and eat with students from the University of New York at Buffalo along with the president of the ADA, Dr. Feinberg. Our afternoon session consisted of more presentations, mock meetings with legislators, and concluded with speeches by two dentists (now state representatives) from Texas. With that we broke for the day and were on our own. We met briefly as a group to discuss our tactics when meeting with legislators the following day, and then we were off to dinner.

The next day was an early one, with the buses scheduled to leave at 7:15am and our first meeting at 8:30. We had a busy day planned with seven meetings in all, the last one coming at three in the afternoon. Our first meeting was with Cory Gardner’s office, a senator from Colorado. We spoke with his aid for a bit about the two bills that we were advocating for. He was very receptive to what we had to say and the meeting was more relaxed than I expected, which reminded me of most of my dental school interviews; nervous at first, but merely conversational once I had settled in. We were lucky enough to have Cory Gardner stop in for a few minutes and hear what we had to say, even telling us about his experiences with COMOM. The first meeting of the day went really well, and we were off to a good start in our lobbying efforts.

Since we felt that having all seven of us in each meeting was a bit of overkill, we decided to approach the rest of the meetings as smaller groups, mostly consisting of three or four people. Another reason for this approach was that we were constantly walking the whole day, from house to the senate, senate to the house: it was a workout to say the least. Splitting into groups allowed us more time between meetings to make sure we were not late. We had six meetings scheduled for the rest of the day: a senator from Colorado, two senators from New Mexico, and three representatives from Colorado. Of these six remaining meetings, five of them went really well while one seemed like a complete disaster. All in all it seemed to be a pretty successful day that ended around 3:30 and with us heading straight to the airport from the senate building, back on a plane to Denver a mere 52 hours after we had arrived.

If you’ve read this far and are thinking to yourself, “this sounds like too much work, I’d want to at least do some exploring of D.C.”, you probably aren’t friends with me on ‘Snapchat’. The Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, and the National Museum of American History: these were just a few of the sites we got to see in our limited time in Washington. If you do know me personally then you probably saw most of these as low quality pictures from around D.C., showing just how much fun I got to have along with how much I learned while at National Lobby Day. This is something I hope to convey to you if you haven’t been involved much with ASDA, and it doesn’t have to be at the national level, nor a huge commitment. I encourage you to get involved in local events because they are a great networking experience, informative, and fun! All I know is that I would not have done it any differently and I’m so thankful to have been able to go.

Being a great leader is something that each of us strives for.  We all have a little bit of leader in us somewhere... we've always been driven for success, and we all hope to be our own bosses someday.  We're all pretty responsible -- I mean, we had to be to get into dental school, right? -- but I think I'd be speaking for many of us if I said that the idea of being a great leader is pretty darn intimidating.

This weekend, Colorado ASDA had the honor of hosting Dr. David Rice, founder of IgniteDDS, at our first annual Leadership Workshop.  Dr. Rice has been an immensely popular speaker at past ASDA events, such as regional meetings and the Annual Session, and we were fortunate enough to have him speak to us here, on our very own campus!

IgniteDDS is an organization that works to get people really fired up about dentistry, whether they're patients, students, or dental professionals.  As this workshop was tailored toward dental students and pre-dents, Dr. Rice focused on teaching us to be successful, and how we can really jump-start our careers in dentistry.  Prior to the event, each of us took a DiSC behavioral assessment, the results of which we discussed during the workshop.  Essentially, the DiSC assessment categorizes people into one of four different personality types: Domint, Influential, Steady, and Conscientious.  The theory behind the DiSC is that each of us has one of these personalities, which majorly affects our relationships and interactions with other people.  Dr. Rice described each of these personalities and how they relate to professionalism in dentistry.  In order to be successful in your business, you must build a solid rapport with many different types of people.  In order to do so, you must first know how to work with a range of personalities, and get each type of person to trust and feel comfortable with you.  Staffing a variety of personality types is a great way to maximize the likelihood that your patients will feel at ease being treated in your dental office.  Dr. Rice mentioned many times that treating others as you wish to be treated may have worked in elementary school, but treating others as they wish to be treated is what will get you far in the professional world.  Each patient brings their unique personality into your practice, and with that comes a challenge. Being able to read your patients and work with them on a level in which they feel understood and appreciated will get you far in your practice.

If you are interested in learning more about IgniteDDS or Dr. David Rice, please check out their website, and "like" them on Facebook.  If you'd like to know the specifics of the DiSC personalities, and are interested in finding out where you lie on the spectrum, click here.

 

Dental Lobby Day comes but once a year. Dentists from various districts throughout the state come together to share their opinions with their respective state Senators and State Representatives concerning bills that relate to dental interests and trepidations. We, as students, are invited to participate in this event, as our opinions and shining young faces can influence the decisions of Senators and Representatives and their support of these bills. The list of bills that were the hot topics this year are listed at the bottom of this article.

For those you of you who have never partaken in the Lobby Day experience, let me give you a brief synopsis of how it works…

The Schedule

7:45 a.m. Arrive at the state Capitol. Pass through security screening and proceed to the basement committee room.

• After paying a slightly absurd amount to park for this brief event (you will get reimbursed) you arrive at the State Capital building and walk through the entry security screening at any of the main entrance doors. After wandering around aimlessly for a few moments, you finally locate the hidden elevators and go down one level to the basement, where you proceed to the committee room. You pick up your color-coded folder filled with a list of talking points, legislator handouts, lobby cards, a name tag, and various reference materials including a map of the capitol and “Face Book” packets containing pictures of all of the members of the Senate and House. You enjoy a light Panera-catered breakfast and mingle with some of the familiar faces present, such as our very own Dr. Sessa.

8:00 a.m. The CDA will provide message training to discuss issues and messaging, and ask any questions. Groups are divided by their geographical location.

• This is basically to discuss and inform us on the issues we will be lobbying, and give us the opportunity to ask any questions. Then, according to the color of our folders (they are arranged by geographic location of the districts) we are broken into groups with a team leader. For example, my yellow folder was for the East Metro region of Colorado, and Dr. Karen Foster was my team leader.

9:00 a.m. Follow your group and group leader to the 2^nd floor lobby. Work with your team leaders to discuss dental issues.

• Everyone then heads upstairs to the Senate and House floor, and this is where the real “lobbying” and excitement begins. Lobbying literally is just that; you send in a lobby card where you have written the name of your respective Senator or Representative to the nice gentleman/woman guarding the doors into the Senate or House, these cards somehow are magically delivered to that person, then they come out to the lobby to hear you give your passionate speech concerning the topic of these pressing dental issues.
• Our group was lucky enough to be invited onto the Senate floor! Last year, I met a Senator named Bill Cadman who is from my very own hometown of Whitefish, Montana. So, I wrote his name on my lobby card and before I knew it, Senator Cadman was walking out the door holding my lobby card. Two really great things happened right then: #1 was that Bill remembered me. #2 was that Bill was apparently the newly elected President of the Senate. Neat! Bill then invited me, Annie Bielinski, Michael Murphy, and one of our baby pre-dental students that we had recruited into attending, to the Senate floor, where we sat on the perimeter of the room and watched the activity going on around us. And posed for a photo, of course. (See pic, I will email them). Bill then led us all through into his office, which was equipped with a speaker playing the discussions going on in the Senate floor. We sat in a circle and intermittently talked about the dental bills we were there to lobby, interspersed with topics varying from Paragliding, talking your way out of speeding tickets, skiing in Europe, and hearing about Bill’s various travel experiences. Hopefully Bill kept to his word and spread all of our extremely knowledgeable and convincing lobbying to the rest of the Senate.

9:45 a.m.: Switch to the lobby of the second chamber (Senate or House)

10:30 a.m.: Eat lunch with legislators and engage in more detailed conversations about dental issues

12:00 p.m. Depart the Capitol

This sums up our short, yet eventful, morning at the State Capitol. We mingled with some Senators, went onto the Floor of the Senate, sat and spoke personally with the president of the Senate, and met various dentists from throughout the state. Overall, Lobby Day is an incredible experience. It is an amazing opportunity to meet some very powerful and influential people and have an impact on legal processes that directly impact us and our future careers. I highly recommend that everyone partakes in this experience!

Lobby Day Hot Topics!

• Access to Care: Dental Provider Designation Systems (HB 1191)
  • Last summer, a dental insurer decided to implement a provider rating system that ranks dentists using a 1-3 star rating based only on cost of care. This bill is to regulate this designation program to include other factors, including quality of care, and patient demographics.
• Access-to-Care: Medicaid Reimbursement bill (HB 1151)
  • In 2013, the CDA launched the “Take 5” program to recruit dentists to enroll as Medicaid providers. However, Medicaid rates aren’t sustainable for dental practices. This bill is working towards better funding for Medicaid dental services.
• Access-to-Care: Loan Forgiveness (CDPHE Budget Request)
  • To provide for increased student loan forgiveness incentive packages to recruit dentists to serve in rural and underserved areas.
• Access-to Care: Incentives for Preceptors (no bill # yet)
  • Another step towards increasing dental access for rural and underserved areas, this bill is to increase opportunities for training in these areas by creating a provision of tax credit to preceptors.
• Scope of Practice: Minimizing Use of the Dental Team through ITR
  • This bill is to allow dental hygienists to do Interim Therapeutic Restorations (ITR), a procedure to stop decay on a temporary basis.

 

ASDA Annual Session. Home of the Gold Crown Awards and President’s Gala. Petri dish of isolated and cultured ASDA fever (and maybe laryngitis). Annual session is where you gather with 650 of your closest friends and fellow ASDA leaders in a hotel to share ideas, stories, and to elect the Board of Trustees. This year, our very own seahorse farmer gone chapter president, Christian Piers, ran for, and was elected president of national ASDA.

So you may be thinking…. okay cool, being president is AWESOME, but what exactly does that mean?

Long story short, being ASDA President means it is your goal to fight for the issues presented by a body of 22,000 dental students. To put this in perspective, that represents about 95% of ALL dental students across our country. The president serves as the head of the board of trustees (which now also contains Colorado's Kyle Larsen), a group representing leaders from each geographic district voting on issues plaguing dental students, such as student debt and licensure. ASDA serves as the little brother of the American Dental Association (ADA), and the president works hand in hand with the ADA to better the future of our profession.

Running for president requires all the things you might expect; a candidate should have a strong CV, a platform for the issues they plan to address, a great speech, stunning good looks and a charming personality. It also requires many things you might not expect. As I mentioned earlier, ASDA is divided into geographic groups called districts. Districts are joined together to form a caucus. Candidates go on a parade through each caucus where they are asked questions ranging from explaining ASDA policy to showing a demonstration of their twerking ability. ASDA really brings out your true colors. Each caucus has its own personality. Some are very serious where candidates are interrogated. Others more fun, where candidates can expect to perform their greatest dance moves. This gives each candidate an opportunity to demonstrate their potential beyond their skills on paper and public speaking ability. After all, who wants a president that can’t dance? Meanwhile, candidates spend every spare minute (and time dedicated to sleeping) on meeting as many new people as they can.

Supporters of Christian might say that this sounds like something Christian would excel at. Well friends, he dominated. The following day, each dental school had an opportunity to cast votes for their top 3 choices to make up the executive committee (EC) that consists of 2 vice presidents and 1 president. Our ballots were cast and eventually we learned that Christian was in the top 3 and would be serving on the EC. Each candidate was then given the opportunity to answer just a few more questions by who is now the immediate past president so that each school could vote on their top individual. Christian Piers was announced as the new president of ASDA, where he was promptly pinned and photographed.

My personal role in campaigning was to ensure safe transportation home from the various district events. Needless to say, navigation on foot in an unknown city is not in my skill set. Fortunately our fearless leader Christian recognizes that a cobblestone onramp is in fact a road for vehicles and not a sidewalk, adding 'sense of direction' to the list of talents our favorite seahorse farmer possesses.

So what can we expect from Christian Piers? His primary issues to tackle are licensure reform, student debt, and midlevel providers. ASDA has been pushing to eliminate live patient exams for a while now and Christian hopes to fight to reform licensure, so that our ability to practice dentistry does not depend on using our patients in an unethical exam. Additionally he hopes to work on student loan reform to not only lower interest rates, but also expand our options to repay our astronomical debts. Finally he hopes to address the issue of midlevel providers, something that could influence how we practice dentistry and undermine our education and knowledge as dentists. For more information on these topics, see the link at the end of this post.

We are so fortunate that Christian Piers will not only be advocating for us future as dentists, but also that he will continue spreading ASDA fever through our local chapter. If you see him around, give him a handshake, a high five, or a hug. Warning: any physical contact with Christian might cause ASDA fever and there are no known preventative vaccinations or treatments.

Congratulations Christian Piers, the world is your seahorse

If you’d like to learn more about Christian’s platform, and information on each subject he plans to address, please visit: http://www.asdanet.org/uploadedfiles/Events/elections/2015/Christian%20Piers%20EC%20Platform%202015.pdf.

The air buzzes with excitement as 650 dental students from across the country stroll the red carpet, schmoozing with the dental “celebrities” in attendance. They’re all decked in the nicest clothes they could fit in their suitcases, and smiles and laughter abound. The delegation from Colorado ASDA walks in confidently, but I feel traitorously nervous. Colorado is on the ballot for several awards, many in the newsletter category. Why I was nervous, I may never know, but this is a blog, and one must spill ones feelings on a blog.

It’s practically a rule of blogging.

I try to mimic the confidence of my fellow Coloradoans, and perhaps I half-succeed. At least looking through the multitudes of pictures afterwards I can’t see my nerves on display. The doors to the ballroom open, but our group pauses to take a few additional pictures. People stream inside and I worry we won’t get seats. Finally, we push through the double doors and sit towards the back of the room, taking up nearly an entire row.

Past presidents and editors of ASDA take to the stage and perform song and dance, spinning about in fantastically sparkly outfits just like they do at the actual Oscars. Presenters occupy the microphone two at a time, unsealing envelopes and announcing winners while roasting anyone and everyone. Much of it rolls off of me. As this is my first national ASDA event, I don’t know most of the presenters, or who they’re good-naturedly insulting.

But then a familiar face takes the stage, Colorado’s very own Christian Piers. As national Editor-in-chief, he’s charged with announcing many of the newsletter-related awards. When he says, “People might think I helped with this newsletter…,” some part of me knows he’s going to announce Colorado as the winner, but I still have to be waved out of my seat by half my delegation when he inevitably does. I walk up on stage, smile for an acceptance picture—the spotlights are blinding so I have no idea where to look—and then make the long walk back to my seat, being congratulated by strangers the entire way. The experience was rather surreal.

By the end of the night, Colorado has won five Gold Crowns:

• Outstanding Membership and Communication
• Best Newsletter Layout and Design
• Outstanding Social Media
• Most Creative Presentation
• District 9 Delegate of the Year

This last one is won by our own Kyle Larsen, ’17, and truly, the other four are his awards as well. I know he’ll say, “It was a team effort.” And it surely was. We do have a fantastic group of wannabe dentists on our executive committee this year, led fearlessly by our Commander-in-chief, Christian Piers, ‘16. But Kyle does an unbelievable amount of work for Colorado ASDA, and these awards are his recognition for a job well done. Let me try to put this in perspective. In the last eight years, Colorado ASDA has won one Gold Crown Award.

This year, we won five.

That’s not coincidence.

It’s dedication.

~Rick Collette, Class of 2017, Colorado ASDA Editor-in-chief

Before I attended the ASDA Annual Session, I didn't fully understand how our local chapter fit into the national level.  I also had no idea of what went on at these conferences.  To give you a little summary, each school fits into a district. There are 13 total districts that make up the national ASDA. Colorado is in District 9 along with other schools such as Oklahoma, Baylor, San Antonio, and Houston. During Annual Session, we were paired with District 8 where we discussed our opinions of presidential candidates, speaker of the house and trustee candidates, as well as our opinions on the current legislative issues affecting our profession. This year 650 students attended Annual Session, which meant that not every school had equal representation. Some schools such as UCLA sent over 30 students to the meeting, while other newer schools such LECOM had fewer people represent their school. This would only be a problem with voting, so to remedy this problem, only two delegates from each school are allowed to vote. The reason why voting is so important is because these delegates represent our opinion as a school for legislative issues. It is these delegates who are actually voting for change and supporting our rights in the dental profession. I got to witness firsthand the strength and ability of an organization to make such a change for our future. At annual session, there were several issues that were a very popular topic of debate. These included the subjects of student debt and live patients for boards, the former being biggest issue by far. The average dental student graduates with $241,000 in debt, which is a 66% increase in the past decade. This is such a concern because new graduates are more likely  to take a job because of the salary, and are not necessarily focused on getting job that provides the best patient care. ASDA wants Congress to pass measures that include expanding tax deductibility on debt, reducing the overall student loan interest rate, improving access to public service loan forgiveness programs, giving scholarships to dental students, and prohibiting the compounding interest during loan repayment. ASDA has such a powerful voice because legislation is more likely to be passed if they can see a strong representation of students who are all seeking change on the same common issues.

The other topic of discussion was the issue of using live patients for licensure board exams. Currently, in order to obtain a dental license, a dental student must have their degree, pass a written set of exams, and also pass the clinical set of boards that requires the use of live patients. There are a few ethical issues that arise from the clinical exam, the first being continuity of care. Patients presenting for the Boards are often receiving only one part of an extensive treatment plan that is not being addressed, and to students it seems ethically wrong to treat a patient with such a narrow focus. Additionally, if the patient does not show up for the exam, the student could fail and would have to pay an expensive fee to retake it. To address these issues, ASDA has proposed a few alternatives.  Firstly, we could eliminate the clinical exam altogether, allowing students to obtain a license by graduating from an accredited dental school. The next would be a portfolio-type clinical exam in which students would compile a record of each case completed during their fourth year, after which an examiner would review the portfolio and give a license if deemed appropriate. A third option would be to have an ethical case-based exam such as the OSCE which is currently used in Minnesota and Canada.  Finally, the licensure process could require the completion of a one year postgraduate residency program, a system already established in NY, WA, MN, CA, and CN.

Attending annual session was such a rewarding experience and it was empowering to see these issues brought to the stage. I was able to discuss the pros and cons to each issue and have a much better grasp about the issues of our profession. Upon reflection of my experience at Annual Session, I realized that national ASDA is not only representing the voices of dental students, but they are actively fighting issues that directly will directly affect our lives in the next 2 years.

What was it like attending an ASDA conference for the first time? Well, it was AWESOME! In fact, “awesome” is exactly how ASDA Annual Session started out…

The keynote speaker, Neil Pasricha, spoke on finding all of the awesome things in life, no matter how small or big they may be. Neil’s presentation took me from the world of working to create the perfect crown preparation and obtaining good grades to truly being happy in life by not taking for granted all of the small “awesomes” in life. His presentation was the perfect start to catching the legendary “ASDA fever," and boy oh boy, let me tell you -  I caught it!

As a second year student, I had certainly heard of ASDA fever, but I did not know what it meant until I was able to attend Annual Session. ASDA fever takes you from being a normal dental student, doing normal dental student things, to a whole new level. A level of wanting more: wanting to do more, see more, give more, learn more, BE MORE!

I arrived at Annual Session having no idea what to expect. What did I get? A fast-moving whirlwind of watching and learning, seeing and teaching, moving and doing. Early mornings, full days, great people, and fun nights are the backbone of Annual Session. Though it is SO much more. When you have over 700 amazing and motivated people in one place, there is an electricity in the air. Electricity that propels you to get everything out of those 3 days as possible. In fact, as I type 3 days, I am in awe…there was so much packed into Annual Session that it felt like much more than 3 days!

Those 3 days of Annual Session were absolutely exhausting. However, I barely noticed this because of the excitement that was always on the horizon. Attending ASDA Annual Session woke me from a slumber you could say. I was worn out, bogged down, and just plain tired from the demanding life of a 2nd year dental student. After Annual Session, I left renewed, energized, and excited. I want to continue to do all that I had done before (ASDA, school itself, other student organizations), but with added vigor. I want to get more involved with ASDA, not only within my chapter, but also at the district level and perhaps even the national level. I want to get everyone around me to love ASDA as much as I do! I want to be the better version of myself in all facets of my life.

So, what was it like attending my first ASDA conference? It was amazing, exhausting, exhilarating, wonderful, funny, motivational, awe-inspiring… AMAZING! It truly was THE BEST WEEK EVER!

~Kelly Santarelli, Class of 2017, Colorado ASDA Lunch and Learn Coordinator