you're universities dental club activities

[Lethstang]

My fellow predents,

Id like your ideas for good dental club activities. At my school ours is very small, and Id like to grow it so we are a sizeable organization (membership the past few years has been around 10 ppl). For this to happen, we have to have activities that make people want to be apart of. What we are thinking so far :

Guest dentist speakers (for this to happen we need more members - i certainly dont want to bring in a dentist for five people, ill look like an *******)

DAT prep (one meeting can be spent with a DAT overview, what the subjects are, how to study etc. youd be surprised how many new predents who dont utilize sdn have no clue)

Overview of application process, timeline, dos and donts etc

a group dental school tour (our dental school is in the same city)

a shadowing network (put a network in place of willing dentists, so our up and comers dont have to call around town)

Club scrubs (university logo, dental club logo)

What notable activities does your club do?

What could you add to our list?

S

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[pinetar321]

if you want more members, do what our predental society did:

1. hold an interest meeting at a convenient date/time
2. chalk up the sidewalks with eye-catching designs and the location/date/time of the interest meeting
3. possibly bring food
4. don't be shy about getting your name out there - talk in front of big intro bio classes, etc.

its a good formula for success.
Also, try making each meeting worthwhile to members by giving DAT, application advice etc.

 

[Vicviper]

Number one rule for getting people to meetings - GIVE AWAY FREE PIZZA!!! 🙂

Our Undergrad ASDA at UC Irvine had DAT prep events hosted by Kaplan, and you can actually get Kaplan to sponsor your club to help with funding, also, we had students who had already applied to dental school talk about the experience, etc. Also, you'll find that students may actually be more interested to hear dental students come and talk more than dentists, because they're in it right now, and don't have rose tinted glasses about the entire experience (not to say that people wouldn't come to hear dentists talk).

I think the best piece of advice I can give is to contact your local dental school's ASDA chapter (American Student Dental Association), and ask if you can set up what's called a "Drill and Fill." We do these every few weeks at Pitt for the undergrads, and it's basically where a bunch of us stay after school and have a group of undergrads come up and use our tools and Pre-clinic simulation lab to drill some teeth and fill them with amalgam - it's really rather cool, and the people who attend really like it. Also, we can show you how to make impressions, and we just did an event last week where we showed the undergrads the basics of waxing, which is like one of your biggest classes in the first year of dental school.

Lastly, be sure to use correct grammar in all of you're signs, hehe, jk. 🙂

 

[Lethstang]

really appreciate the responses guys, hopping on all this great advice asap.

 

[New2Philly]

I know a few clubs did dental missions trips. I know the UCSD, and UCLA take a small group to Mexico through NPO's.

 

[pinetar321]

Number one rule for getting people to meetings - GIVE AWAY FREE PIZZA!!! 🙂

Our Undergrad ASDA at UC Irvine had DAT prep events hosted by Kaplan, and you can actually get Kaplan to sponsor your club to help with funding, also, we had students who had already applied to dental school talk about the experience, etc. Also, you'll find that students may actually be more interested to hear dental students come and talk more than dentists, because they're in it right now, and don't have rose tinted glasses about the entire experience (not to say that people wouldn't come to hear dentists talk).

I think the best piece of advice I can give is to contact your local dental school's ASDA chapter (American Student Dental Association), and ask if you can set up what's called a "Drill and Fill." We do these every few weeks at Pitt for the undergrads, and it's basically where a bunch of us stay after school and have a group of undergrads come up and use our tools and Pre-clinic simulation lab to drill some teeth and fill them with amalgam - it's really rather cool, and the people who attend really like it. Also, we can show you how to make impressions, and we just did an event last week where we showed the undergrads the basics of waxing, which is like one of your biggest classes in the first year of dental school.

Lastly, be sure to use correct grammar in all of you're signs, hehe, jk. 🙂

works every time.

 

[Mazmel]

the Rutgers University Pre-Dental Society did many of the things that were mentioned (except we got t-shirts instead of scrubs (much cheaper lol 👍)).
Heres our website if you would like more information (or shoot me a PM):
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~rudental/

 

[Sauce]

(except we got t-shirts instead of scrubs (much cheaper lol 👍)).

I second the idea of Tshirts instead of scrubs. Really I wouldn't want to spend the money for scrubs I will probably never wear (i.e. your going to look like a tool if you wear them to dental school or if you wear them around campus at your undergrad institution.)

 

[Impulse155]

Free Food
Make events that would seem fun, not necessarily "dental" related. Your trying to attract people, then promote your goal.
Hold a blood drive. While at the blood drive, let people know that its being hosted by the dental society.

 

[Vicviper]

Also, contact the national ASDA and see if you can start an undergrad ASDA at your school. Having the official name makes it much more appealing for people to join (they think it pads their application).

 

[golf05]

The club doesn't have to just be predental students. We have a large Pre-Health Professions Club that gets together and does volunteer work. We meet a couple of times a semester to get members connected with the right people and from there we find out who is dent/med/pharm...etc.

We have done dinners where we have professionals from many different health areas come in and give a 5 minute blurb about their profession and then break up into small groups so students can ask more specific questions. This is great for people who are merely "interested in the health field" and for those who have specific questions and want to make connections with professionals in their field of interest.

Fun ideas you have going for you. I like the scrubs!