Nguyen, who graduated in 2008, is now a preceptor herself in a dental clinic that serves the uninsured in Denver. "I love my job," she says. "If it hadn’t been for ACTS, I wouldn’t feel the same about dentistry. The ACTS program showed me what I could do."
Nguyen also travels to her parents’ homeland, Vietnam, to volunteer at orphanages and has long-term plans to work as a dentist in third-world and developing nations. "I’ve taken a huge pay cut, but I like helping those who are less fortunate."
Her parents left Vietnam for the United States to escape the communists in 1978, enduring 41 days at sea and brutal attacks by Thai pirates. Nguyen was born in Colorado but spoke only Vietnamese until elementary school.
"When I was eight, I wanted everything. When I was a teenager, my father took me to Vietnam so I could see how lucky I was. When I saw how others had to live, I never wanted anything again."
ACTS has its roots in the work of Larry Meskin, former dean of the School of Dental Medicine, with Rich Call and Kerry Maguire, longtime SDM faculty members.
For more than 15 years since then, Rob Berg, associate professor and chair of applied dentistry, directs the ACTS program. His interest in public health was piqued when he first worked with Native American communities as a dental student and later practiced as a tribal health director.
"The Advanced Clinical Training and Service program substantially broadens and deepens the students’ experience and develops their self-confidence and good judgment," Berg says. "Their evaluations tell me the program has helped them both to grow and to realize how capable they really are."