Amira Mahomed’s interests in science and health care inspired her decision to pursue dentistry. She recalls, “I liked working with my hands, and I liked that in dentistry, you can really take away someone’s pain during an appointment. Someone can come in with an issue, and then with one appointment, you can solve their problem. So, I really found dentistry to be very fulfilling and something that can be very helpful to someone’s life and to their confidence, so that’s why I chose dentistry."
Another factor that inspired her was mentoring high school students from diverse backgrounds. Amira says that ACE shaped her perspective by emphasizing the importance of giving back. She says, "ACE really taught me about the value of helping people from underrepresented communities. So, from both being impacted by the ACE program and seeing how much the resources were benefiting me and being able to benefit … high school students who were underrepresented, I did see the value in the impact that could be made from serving underserved communities, and it helped me recognize that in my career I want to serve underserved communities as a dentist." Amira will attend the UCLA School of Dentistry in the fall of 2023.
As a first-generation college student, Giuliana Toscano was unfamiliar with the necessary steps to be a competitive applicant for dentistry school. "I always knew I wanted to be a dentist and that I wanted to apply for dental school, but since I’m a first-gen student, I was always worried that I wouldn’t know how to apply. ACE helped like, since I joined sophomore year, because, gradually we started talking about law or medicine and we would break out into groups and research by ourselves based on the topic like scholarships or grad opportunities. Also ... ACE provided us with the grad exam preparation ... and we worked on the schedule of when we wanted to apply and when we wanted to start studying."
On what she plans to accomplish towards becoming a dentist, Giuliana says, "The reason I wanted to become a dentist was growing up, I noticed my family didn’t have access to dentistry because it’s very expensive. So, my mission after dental school is to help low-income families and do outreach and open clinics and give back to my community. In the future, I want to give back to students like the ACE program and make a program." Giuliana will also attend Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at USC in the fall of 2023.