After my third year of dental school, I finally had the opportunity to explore many different aspects of dentistry. I received the joy of delivering a new, beautiful smile to a patient through a set of dentures. I alleviated severe pain through root canals and extractions. I was able to remove decayed tooth structure and restore it with composite fillings and crowns. However, as I searched for the place where I could best serve God and my patients, I finally felt called and most at home in orthodontics.

Orthodontics is a very competitive specialty. Admission heavily depends on your GPA and class rank. Thankfully I had plenty of excellent faculty to prepare me in both didactic lecture courses and clinical exams. Additionally, I had two friends in particular that encouraged me and pushed me to study hard for every test and held me accountable to never go into an exam unprepared. The good Lord carried me every step of the way and gave me the tools I needed to excel.

Because of the difficulty of gaining admission, I ended up applying to over thirty orthodontic residency programs all around the country. Thankfully I was able to schedule interviews at 10 different schools when the fall of my senior year arrived. I was carefully balancing keeping up with my school requirements, while flying to 9 different states and rigorously preparing for interviews. At each school I would get the opportunity to learn what differentiated them, how the residents enjoyed their time, the specialty area of focus of the faculty, how many patients were treated during the course of study, and the overall culture of the program.

After getting to critically evaluate each program, I was able to rank each program and wait for match day to arrive. I woke up early that day to get the best email I have ever received. I had indeed matched at my #1 ranked program at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Dentistry. I was absolutely elated. It was such a blessing and joy to finally understand that all my hard work had paid off. Stay tuned for my journey over to Kansas City!