“I think that your smile really completes you and it says a lot about yourself,” said Junior Nora AlQureshi.
On South Tech’s Dental Sciences website it states that, while in this program, “Students are immersed into clinical experience in both the classroom and through internships.” 
Nora AlQureshi is a junior at HHS who attends South Technical High School in the mornings during school days. She is in the dental sciences program.
“I think that South Tech students get an early start in their career,” AlQureshi said. “You have two years to do it and you get your certification if you take the test and pass it and there’s also internships so whatever you do and whatever you want to do there’s internships and opportunities.”
Students in their junior year of this program learn about safety protocols and learn about teeth, and then when students go into their second year (senior year) they can use the skills they learned into real practice.
“When you’re a senior you get to be in people’s mouths and there is a field trip and a program called ‘GIVE KIDS A SMILE,’ and it’s where you get to give kids a smile and give them a free clean,” said AlQureshi.
As she spends half her day at tech Nora takes classes focused on the program she chose.
“It’s really challenging but it’s really fun,” she said. “You have two classes, I take anatomy and physiology for my second period and you learn about the whole body. And the teeth part, It’s actually very fun and very interesting to learn about.”
To Nora, good time management is a most needed skill to have to balance your regular classes and tech.
“During school TLT [targeted learning time] is a good time to do your work,” AlQureshi said. “South Tech does give you a lot of work like in anatomy and physiology, and you do have a lot of work in there but you just have to take time out of your day for you to balance school and tech.”
South Tech teaches you many skills outside of what classes teach you.
“Something that’s made me proud at South Tech is my time management, how to multitask, and self discipline because I have a lot of things in my life that I have to balance,” AlQureshi stated. “Also I’ve learned how to balance my home school and tech and meeting new friends.”
AlQureshi values South Tech as a resource to have a one up on her future.
“It’s cool that we go in this program and we are treating it like it’s our job because we have to wear scrubs, homework is due the next day, we wear our PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), and we get graded on professionalism,” she said.
She says the dental sciences program is a well worth program to consider when students start thinking about doing South Tech. “I recommend it because it’s really fun because it’s really interesting and with dental there’s more things to learn about.”
