The objectives of this project were to create a program that would expose underrepresented minority (URM) and low income (LI) high school students to dental professions and provide an opportunity for dental and dental hygiene students from URM/LI groups to be engaged in teaching activities. Data were collected from participants during the school years 2009-10 (high school students: N=23, dental students: N=21, dental hygiene students: N=5) and 2010-11 (N=27, N=11, N=3, respectively). The students participated in ifteen Saturday sessions from October through March each year. The data showed that, from the beginning, mentees and mentors were very interested in participating in the program and getting to know each other. Lectures, general program activities, and patient-related events such as organizing a health fair and shadowing during two outreach clinics were evaluated positively by mentees and mentors. The end of program evaluations showed that the program and the mentee-mentor relationships were rated very positively and that the mentees had an increased interest in oral health-related careers. In conclusion, creating opportunities for URM/LI high school students to explore dental careers and for dental and dental hygiene students to engage in teaching resulted in positive experiences for both groups.

Marita R. Inglehart, Dr. phil. habil.Abstract: The objectives of this study were to explore whether Dental Admission Test (DAT) training in an enrichment program for potential dental students increases the participants' Perceptual Achievement Test (PAT) and academic average (AA) scores and whether the length of the program and personal factors such as the number of disadvantages correlate with the DAT scores. Data were collected from 361 students in the summer enrichment program at one dental school between 1994 and 2011. Their baseline, midpoint, and end of program PAT and AA DAT scores were collected. Seventy students self-reported oficial scores. These students' PAT scores increased from 14.40 at baseline to 17.09 at midpoint to 17.84 at program end (p<0.001), and their AA scores increased from 13.53 to 14.09 to 15.12 (p<0.001). Their oficial scores were higher than the beginning scores (PAT: 14.42 vs. 16.15; p<0.001; AA: 13.61 vs. 16.23; p<0.001). The longer the program, the more the students improved their oficial scores (PAT: r=0.35; p=0.003; AA: r=0.24; p=0.044). The more disadvantages the students self-reported, the better their oficial test scores were (PAT: r=0.40; p<0.001; AA: r=0.43; p<0.001). This study found that the DAT training during summer enrichment programs for students from disadvantaged backgrounds led to signiicant improvements in their DAT scores. The longer the programs, the more the students improved; and the more disadvantages the students had, the more they beneitted.

Womanism is a liberation movement that originated as a result of feminism's racial divide and the gender divide of The Civil Rights Movement. The practices and ideologies of womanism work toward dismantling the hegemonic power structures that continue to oppress those who are marginalized. Womanism broadens the goal of the Women's Liberation Movement and even reaches beyond the African‐American female to give voice to all who are silenced (male and female – within the United States, Africa, and the African diaspora) and to liberate all who are oppressed. This liberation movement promotes freedom from economic, political, social, and religious oppression worldwide. Womanist activism is expressed through womanist literature, womanist theology, womanist preaching, womanist discourse, womanist epistemology, and womanist ethics.

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