Aspiring dental students participate in the UMKC School of Dentistry’s new Admissions Enhancement Program

Six young women and six young men took a giant step toward fulfilling their desire to become UMKC dental students when they became the inaugural participants in the School of Dentistry’s innovative Admission Enhancement Program (AEP).

The mission of this new 8-week summer program is “to develop culturally diverse candidates to the UMKC School of Dentistry by strengthening their foundational knowledge, academic skills, and interactions with individuals across the dental profession.” AEP is funded by the Missouri state legislature’s “Caring for Missourians” program, an initiative launched in May 2009 to train more than 900 additional Missouri students to enter high-demand, critical-need healthcare fields. With that goal in mind, UMKC AEP accepts applications from persons who are about to graduate or have graduated from college and who:

• Are Missouri residents.
• Are members of a historically underrepresented minority and/or have experienced a disadvantaged background or are from underserved areas of the state.
• Intend to apply to become a dental student at the UMKC School of Dentistry.

UMKC AEP students got some hands-on experience into both the classroom and clinical life of a UMKC dental school student.

AEP participants spent the first and last weeks of the 8-week program at the School of Dentistry where they participated in a variety of learning sessions — such as essay writing and interviewing skills — that will help them shine as they progress through the dental school application process. They also experienced what it’s like to be a dental student at UMKC and learned first-hand about career options in the dental profession. During the intervening six weeks of the program, students worked at home to complete an on-line, distance education curriculum that focused on strengthening their foundational knowledge in math, chemistry, organic chemistry and biology.