As dental students, our lives are dominated by classes, studying, lab-work, studying, clinic and oh yeah, more studying! Oftentimes, important healthy habits like eating right and exercising can be pushed to the wayside to make more time for studying. This week we are featuring Brett Silvers, a D1 who understands the importance of maintaining a healthy school-life balance thanks to his experiences with weight-lifting.

Brett started Olympic weightlifting for his high school during his sophomore year. “I joined the weightlifting team so I could get stronger for wrestling,” Brett says, “and I ended up sticking with weightlifting for the rest of my high school years. My coach in high school also opened up his own CrossFit gym in Orlando so I was able to continue training while I was in undergrad at UCF.”

According to Brett, “Weightlifting is for everyone! I was never the biggest or strongest guy, but Olympic weightlifting is about so much more than just being strong. The movements emphasize speed and technique just as much as they do strength. If you want to see how much you can lift and how far you can go, then weightlifting is the sport for you. I also learned so many valuable lessons in the weight room that I am now able to implement in my dental school journey. I never knew anyone who was worse off for being a weightlifter, so I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to try it out. You just have to go for it, and I promise you’ll understand what I’m talking about after you lift a new weight for the first time that you never thought you could!”

​While weightlifting may not be the best sport for a dentist, it’s never a bad idea to get out and get a little exercise between the long stretches of studying. ​​

​As young aspiring dentists, we spend a lot of time in one place: 1919 7th Avenue South, to be exact. It’s a great place to learn and grow but it’s safe to say that almost every student at UAB SOD daydreams of traveling beyond the walls of PCD or the second floor clinic. Jordan Reznik, a D3 from Atlanta, Georgia, is one of those students. Traveling has always been a big part of his life and after talking to him, it is clear that there are ways to make time for traveling during dental school.

“Traveling has always been a part of my family life,” says Jordan. “Showing my sister and I that the world is a much bigger place than the city of Atlanta was important to my parents. For me, it’s always been the excitement of something new that has kept me traveling. Different cultures open your eyes to new foods, languages, and ways of life.”

We are excited to announce a new monthly newsletter initiative called ASDA: Month in Review. Today, we focus on all the exciting events that happened at UAB SOD during the month of March. The beginning of March started out with a bang as our Executive Board members traveled to Anaheim, California to attend ASDA Annual Session. They participated in several leadership building and networking events that helped them to grow as leaders of our school. They also elected the new national ASDA Executive Officers and voted on issues that will be reflected in national ASDA policies and lobbied for on state and national levels such as licensure and student loans. On top of this, our very own Kai Huang was elected as District 5 Trustee, the first ever UAB ASDA member to be elected to this position. If you want to learn a little more about Kai, take a look at his feature in a Member Monday post.

​March was also full of plentiful volunteer activities. Our fabulous Community Outreach Committee planned a very successful Project Homeless Connect where UAB students and faculty saw 170 patients, distributed 300 hygiene bags, and identified 20 potentially cancerous lesions. Several of our members took part in the CMMA Dental Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic. The students that went spent their entire spring break serving the people of the DR, performing extractions and cleanings. They saw nearly 160 patients over the course of 4 days in clinic. Each day, they traveled to a different village and set up a mobile dental clinic in a church provided by the village. “It was a challenge the first day,” according to Morgan Quarles, a D1 who went on the trip. “None of us knew where to put anything and we were all nervous to be performing our first injections and extractions. But we got much more comfortable as the week went on and by the fourth day of clinic we knew exactly how to set everything up. It was such a great experience, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to gain more experience and improve their skills!”

​“So how much does dental school really cost? How much debt will you have when you get out? Will you ever not be in debt???” These are some of the dreaded questions dental students avoid thinking about while in dental school. Due to the extremely fast paced and busy schedule of the dental students here at UAB, it is easy to forget about the massive amounts of student loans most of us have to take out to pay for school and the rapidly accumulating interest that builds up each day we are in school.  However, there are several other ways to pay for dental school besides taking out student loans. Today we feature Hillary Diffee, a D4 who is a recipient of the Navy Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP). In this program, all of Hillary’s out of state tuition is paid for and she also receives a living stipend. Pretty sweet deal, right? The only slight downside is that Hillary will have to work 4 years in the Navy when she graduates dental school. But as Hillary says, “when you consider having a guaranteed job after graduation, competitive salary, and years counting towards Navy retirement, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages (if you even consider them to be disadvantages). The dental training in the military is said to be one-of-a-kind, with advanced training in specialties and trauma. To me, the four years of payback is just another learning opportunity!”