March 2, 2020

The Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry was the site of the 3rd annual West Coast Curriculum Hackathon held Sat., Feb. 22 by the school’s student chapter of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA).

More than 80 people from schools across the region participated in the event, which was sponsored by the California Dental Association, Oral-B, and Osmosis.org, with additional support from University of California, San Francisco and Western University.

The West Coast Curriculum Hackathon was an all-day “design sprint”-type event. Students were split into groups to discuss and design a dental education curriculum that addresses an emerging theme in dental education. The discussion, planning and presentation took place in the course of a single day, and judges from dental education selected and recognized the winners.

This year’s theme was “The Nontraditional Dental Student.” As the diversity of the dental student population shifts, so must the dental curriculum. Student teams were given a CV of a theoretical atypical student and challenged to incorporate the student’s unique experiences into their curriculum model.

The winning team consisted of students from the University of Southern California, UCSF and the Dugoni School. Their program included integrating dentistry into the broader field of medicine; individualized learning using a tiered system; and re-envisioning of the licensure process by integrating the mid-level, dentist, and specialist tracks into a single curriculum.

Opening remarks were made by Dean Nader Nadershahi, and the keynote presentation was given by Dr. Daniel Bender, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs.

Dugoni School faculty members presented criteria from the judging panel, which included Drs. Daniel Bender, Parvati Iyer, Meixun Sinky Zheng (all with the Dugoni School), Sheila Brear (Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, UCSF), Elizabeth Joyce (Associate Professor, UCSF), and Yaara Berdan (Assistant Professor, USC).

In addition to this event geared for current dental students, a related Pre-Dental Hackathon was co-hosted by the District 11 Board of the ADEA Council of Students, Residents and Fellows, and the Dugoni School’s ADEA Chapter. Pre-dental students from several undergraduate programs heard from current dental students about how to prepare a competitive application to apply to dental schools, learned how to prepare a successful personal statement, and explored other topics.

Special thanks to the co-organizers of the activities: Patrick Pansoy IDS 2020 and Brandon Zegarowski, DDS 2021, both with the Dugoni School, and Parisa Moravedje Torbaty, DDS 2021 from UCSF. Parisa is the District 11 Commissioner for the ADEA Council of Students, Residents and Fellows.

“It was a fantastic experience,” said Pansoy. “Not only is it a great opportunity to connect dental schools from all over the California region, but having the ability to create an environment where students, who are the greatest stakeholders in dental education, can get together to provide innovative solutions in their respective curriculum provides invaluable insight for the faculty and administration.”

See photos on the online photo gallery.

Contact: Office of Marketing and Communications, 415.929.6434, pr@pacific.edu

Categories: Featured, Students, 2020

Contact: Office of Marketing and Communications, 415.929.6434, pr@pacific.edu