Two Students Awarded Preventive Dentistry Scholarships

Yassmin Parsaei (D’18) and Katherine Jie Shi (D’19) are among the 2018 ADEA/GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Preventive Dentistry Scholarship recipients.

Philadelphia – Penn Dental Medicine students Yassmin Parsaei (D’18) and Katherine Jie Shi (D’19) are among 12 students from dental schools nationwide and within Canada to be selected as recipients of the 2018 ADEA/GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Preventive Dentistry Scholarships. Each year, ADEA and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare recognize predoctoral dental students who have demonstrated academic excellence in preventive dentistry with these competitive scholarships. Recipients receive $2,500 toward their tuition and fees.

Among the ways both Parsaei and Shi have excelled in preventive dentistry is through the community honors program. As part of her community honors course work at Broad Street Ministry (BSM), Parsaei launched an oral health program to bring education, product distribution, and referrals for dental care to homeless and underserved population in Philadelphia. Coupled with the Saturday meal program at BSM, she and other dental students provide individual dental health consultations and assist guests at BSM to access needed dental care. After first visiting BSM’s hospitality collaborative in late 2014, Parsaei recognized the need for these oral health services and led the development of this oral health component, which has operated continually since 2015.

As her community honors project, Shi has worked at Sayre Health Center, where she provides comprehensive dental care with staff dentists and public health hygienists within a community health center, also working as part of an interdisciplinary team with nurses and physicians. At Sayre Health Center, she has also been able to expand her interest in working with patients with special needs. In addition, Shi organized and launched a lecture series on “Specialties and Special Needs” aimed to educate dental students and faculty as part of the Penn Dental Medicine chapter of the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry.

The award presentation will take place at the 2018 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition in Orlando, during the plenary session on Tuesday, March 20.