Thursday Talks: Shemar Rhoden ’26

A dental student by day and a trucking company lead by night—Shemar Rhoden of the Class of 2026 is next up on our Thursday Talk series.

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at RSDM.

I was born on the small Caribbean island of Jamaica. My family and I moved to the United States in 2011, and I attended high school in the Bronx, New York. I was privileged to be able to graduate with a degree in biology from Brandeis University before taking my path toward a career in Dentistry. I’m a third-year student at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine (RSDM).

How long have you been here, and why did you decide to come to RSDM?

My path to RSDM was fueled by a passion to tackle equitable care in the field of dentistry, which I have come to learn is highly lacking in underserved representation, especially representation from men of color. I wanted to attend a dental school and have a direct role in serving an underrepresented community such as Newark.

What do you like the most about RSDM?

My favorite quality about RSDM is the emphasis placed on clinical preparedness, which I have appreciated since the beginning of the first semester due to the early pre-clinical exposure to learning hands-on dental skills.

What do you enjoy doing outside the school?

Outside of school, I enjoy exercising the skill of business management, which involves all the perks of keeping alive Smarthy’s Trucking, a trucking company that I started during my off-year before enrolling at RSDM. I enjoy the challenges associated with piloting a large semi-truck down the interstate and managing the logistics business ownership. Trucking, for me, is an escape from the heavy core science-based curriculum I study here at RSDM.