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UTSD students joined medical students visiting from Mexico for one of several photos. Members of UTSD's Hispanic Student Dental Association volunteered to serve as tour guides.
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Eleven University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston students volunteered to spend part of Saturday, Sept. 29 hosting 40 medical students from Mexico as they visited the Texas Medical Center, including the UTSD campus. The tour was arranged by University Links of Monterrey, Mexico.
The UT student volunteers were all members of the Hispanic Student Dental Association (HSDA) and included dental students Lourdes Tavarez, Diana Reyes, Erika Mendez, Paola Salazar, Zelina Moncivais, Faryn Vela, Martha Orozco and Sean LaRue, plus dental hygiene students Janie Pineda, Esmeralda Diaz and Jeanette Salazar.
Philip Pierpont, DDS, associate dean for student and alumni affairs, was present to answer questions.
The morning began with a presentation by third-year dental student Martha Orozco on the old Dental Branch Building, followed by a tour of the new school. The visiting students were divided into groups of 10, with two HSDA volunteers serving as tour guides for each group. All of the students understood English, but the tours were given in Spanish for better communication.
Although they were medical students, the visitors seemed very engaged in asking questions about the various UTSD programs, said Margo Melchor, RDH, MEd, community outreach director for the School of Dentistry and faculty sponsor of the school’s HSDA chapter.
“Dental hygiene programs still don’t exist in Mexico, so our DH program was something they were really interested in and pleased to see here,” she said.
After the School of Dentistry tour, Houston Greeters took the visitors to see NASA and the John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science. |
