Crossing the Atlantic for RSDM Externship
Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (RSDM) hosted two students from Ireland for a two-week externship this summer. These opportunities provide dental students studying abroad to get exposure to dental school in the United States. Besides Ireland, RSDM also has externships with universities in Albania, Spain, Chile, and India.
The two attendees were dental students Azra Sharif Hassan and Julian Bradley from Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. Both in their last year of school, they met RSDM faculty, spent time shadowing postgraduate residents in specialty clinics, and attended classes with third- and fourth-year students.
“[Those] gave us an insight into what dental school in the USA is truly like,” said Hassan. She was drawn to the program because she aspires to study in the US. She wanted to get a sense of the education and compare it to dentistry in Europe.
“My time at RSDM has significantly broadened my horizons and hopes for my future career in dentistry,” she said. “The exceptionally high standards of teaching and rigorous academic requirements have further solidified my determination to pursue studies in the USA.”
She found the chance to observe different specialties rewarding, especially in periodontics, which she hopes to pursue on the future. The attendees also met the Class of 2028 during their orientation and the White Coat Ceremony, a tradition that Hassan and Bradly don’t have in their school.
Like Hassan, Bradley also hopes to take his career to the US after graduation but for a different reason: his American wife in New York. “I had been researching international programs for foreign-trained dentists,” he said, and his school shared this opportunity at Rutgers, a program that was already on his list.
In his two weeks, he enjoyed getting to know the faculty. “It was refreshing hearing certain thoughts and ideas from those who have been in private practice for a long time and are now teaching students,” he said. “Some of these can definitely be applicable to our own careers when starting out.”
In the short two weeks, he quickly adapted to the school and felt at home with the help of faculty, staff, and students.
“We both felt so at home,” he said. “Overall, it was a brilliant experience.”
