A day in their scrubs
DH1 Jenny Duong
Hometown: I grew up in Richardson, Texas, and did my undergrad at Richland College where I got an associate’s degree in science.
Why did you decide to attend Texas A&M School of Dentistry? I knew the school offered opportunities for a broad field of knowledge, where you can learn by going to clinics, and the professors and doctors here have a high education. Every dentist I talked to said that this was a good school. It was also close to home.
I like being patient-side, talking to them and getting to know them. It makes it more fun, in a way, rather than just seeing them for a few minutes. You get to know them, what they like and what they don’t like. It makes things go much easier and faster, and you get to help them. Once I graduate, I’m planning to get a job with a private practice.
Tell us about your volunteer work with LIGHT: It’s a volunteer group that brings together all kinds of people from different cultures and groups, dental hygiene students and dental students. We go out and volunteer, and stuff like that. They send out a message in a group chat, and whenever I see the message, I just sign up and volunteer. I always try to make it work around my schedule.
We’ve volunteered at homeless shelters, and we’ve made oral hygiene kits. We’ve gone to elementary schools to educate kids on dental hygiene during a festival. We do lots of stuff like that. I would say my favorite volunteering opportunity for LIGHT was when we went to the Buckner Fall Festival and educated kids on how cavities form and how they could care for their teeth.
Author’s note: LIGHT is a student organization started in 2020, offering students of Texas A&M School of Dentistry opportunities to give back to the community in a variety of ways.
Why do you volunteer? I have fun volunteering. I volunteered all the time in high school. I got a couple hundred volunteer hours in high school because I would join all the clubs that I could and continuously volunteer through that. I’d just incorporate it into my schedule. I like making people happy and doing something that could help others in some way. I try to volunteer as much as I can.
Tell us about your job at Tiff’s Treats: I’ve been working there since May of last year. I’m mostly a delivery driver, but I also work in the store when I’m not on the road. Before that, I worked in an orthodontist’s office, and I had a coworker who worked both jobs – at that office and at Tiff’s Treats. I knew if I stayed at that office, I would be really busy, especially with school. This job gives me more flexibility.
It’s really fun for me because when I’m handing a box of cookies over to someone, they always get real happy. I also get free cookies from it, too, so that’s nice. We usually have monthly parties in our class to celebrate birthdays or special occasions. During that, I like to bring cookies for my classmates and professors!
How will LIGHT and your job at Tiff’s enhance your future career? I feel like it does give me some networking opportunities. I’m meeting people all the time. I work out of all the stores in Dallas, so I get to know all of the staff. I sometimes run into people that I know from school, too.
It’s also helping me learn to manage my time with work, school and my personal time. I feel like at the beginning of school it was a struggle for me. But now I’m better at prioritizing and keeping up with what I need to do.
I feel like if I wasn’t working, I’d be relaxing at home, probably studying, but I would just be at home too much, you know? This all is really putting me out there.
