Name: Bomi Hong
Year: 2017
Major: Undeclared
What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going! Through Summer of Service, I’m interning at Kids Smiles, a non-profit organization that not only provides children with dental treatments but also educate them on the importance of proper oral hygiene. By having kids realize the importance of adequate oral care, it’s also empowering them to take control of their personal health behaviors and be responsible for their actions. I’m part of the education curriculum group at Kids Smiles so my task is to educate the children while they are in the waiting room. There are many lessons I can teach the kids, which vary from demonstrating how to brush properly using puppets to playing the interactive “happy tooth, sad tooth” game. I really try to get as many kids participating as possible because knowledge is key and by providing children with information related to teeth, they can then make informed decisions about the choices they make, even a simple one such as brushing teeth twice a day.
How I heard about my internship: I was searching for some summer internships on the Bryn Mawr website and found Summer of Service. I thought the description of this program, that a group of BMC students will live together and volunteer somewhere in Bryn Mawr/ Philadelphia areas, would be a great learning experience.
Why I applied for my internship: When I applied for this internship, I didn’t know where I was going to be interning. It was only after doing a bit of research that I found Kids Smiles, the perfect internship site for me because becoming a dentist has been my goal after realizing my passion for both the sciences and drawing. Coming in, I didn’t know what to expect, but the fact that Kids Smiles was a non-profit dental clinic let me see the distinction between private and non-profit dental offices. At Kids Smiles, the dentists actually care about the well-beings of their patients’ teeth, providing tips and reminders of flossing and brushing, whereas dentists in many private settings only care about earning a profit so don’t inform their patients as much or as effectively.This internship was truly an eye-opening experience, letting me experience first-hand that the real world is truly unfair, as money is a huge factor in deciding what people can afford or can’t have. This internship solidified my goal of not only becoming a dentist, but a dentist who can try to reduce that disparity between the rich and the poor by working for a great inspiring organization like Kids Smiles.