First Graduation for Dental Assistant Program The School of Dental and Oral Surgery and Harlem Hospital Dental Service graduated the first 20 students of the Community DentCare Network’s Dental Assistant Training Program. Thanks to the support of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corpora tion, this model program has served to strengthen the local economy by offering valuable job training and placement to local minority high school graduates and GED holders. “The program’s greatest strength is the partnership between SDOS and Harlem Hospital Dental Service, which utilizes both faculty and facilities to offer the highest level of training to these students,” says Dr. Allan Formicola, dean of the School of Dental and Oral Surgery. “The students also receive practical experience working alongside Columbia and Harlem practitioners.” The graduates are residents of Harlem and Washington Heights/Inwood communities who received one year of dental assistant training tuition-free. These graduates will now be placed in community clinics and private dental offices where they will earn competitive salaries as state certified dental assistants. |R