Exhibit: My Leadership Role in my Dental Class

Benchmark: Individuality

Skills: Leadership Role

 

            “The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.” –John Wooden. This quote resonates with me because I believe the key to success is confidence, effort, and the mindset that you will become great and successful. Part of being successful is taking opportunities that you are given. Never pass up an opportunity to learn or get hands on experience because that knowledge, even if it takes you only one step forward, its knowledge you lacked and you wouldn't gain without that exeperience. A high number of my generation lacks this mindset; people these days lack the motivation and the ability to consider the future. People who do posses this confidence, knowledge and mindset become the professionals in a leadership role. It is my dream to be a dentist. When telling others in my age group what my future career plans are normally their first response is “I couldn’t go to school for that long!” This is a negative point of view. I have chosen to go into my specific career because it meets my interest and although I will be not starting at the level of a dentist, I look at eight years as advancing in my career to achieve the leadership position that I will be qualified for. I am a leader in my dental class currently and I plan to succeed and remain a leader in my future dental classes.

            I consider myself a leader in my dental class not only because of my grades that I have achieved the past two years, but because of my willingness to learn and my eagerness to succeed and allow others to succeed and also by assisting fellow students with their work that may not come easy to them. Before we jump into a new procedure, we do skill demos in which my teacher instructs us on how to conduct the procedure correctly. She, depending on the skill or procedure, asks for volunteers to demonstrate the skill. I nearly every time offer to display the skill to the class whether I am in the position of the dentist or I am the assistant. I like being able to show the class the skill because I know my attention to detail and my attention to proper handling of the instruments is helpful to exhibit four-handed dentistry and also proper procedural techniques that can help the other students improve theirs.

         Qualities of a great leader include someone who is honest, confident, easy to communicate with, committed, positive, creative, inspiring, and highly approachable; I posses all of these qualities. I am a quite honest person because I often speak my mind and I am not afraid to tell someone my true opinion but I have intuition when the truth can be hurtful and I am able to give my opinion, but I am still able to consider how it will effect the person's feelings. This is important because when consulting with a patient I must be able to exhibit empathy and understanding while still giving a patient their diagnosis. I am a positive person in the aspect that I can look at a situation and find the good in anything, which is important when concerning a patient that may feel as if they do not have a positive in their diagnosis; I can provide encouragement. Being creative in dentistry is important because when you manipulate a material you must be able to create the correct natural anatomy of a tooth, having a creative eye allows see what can become and allows you to create an outstanding final product. Going through dental school is a challenging endeavor, it is highly recommended for a dental student to work side by side with a dentist while going through school to gain knowledge from the dentist they work under. I know when I become a dentist my story of getting to where I am at can be inspiring to a dental student going through what I went through.  I would consider myself highly approachable because of my friendly nature, it is easy for me to communicate and I am often told that I am very easy to talk to. This is important in my career.

        In many different situations I find myself being in charge of important tasks because I am a person that can be highly trusted. Nowadays, there aren’t many people you can trust to work for you because not many people have a sense of loyalty and commitment like I do. Since a young age these morals have been instilled in me and have stuck with me and made me the person I am today. Not many people can say this for themselves which is a sad fact but when it comes down to it, the strong, hardworking, loyal, and intelligent people prevail in today’s society. I am meant to be in a leadership position and I am willing to work for it in my career.