HRSA renews grant at $3.25M to assist disadvantaged and minority dental students

The UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry received notification from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) that the Scholarship for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) has been successfully renewed at $3.25 million. Over the next five years, the SDS program will award $32,500 to 20 dental students annually. The program aims to increase the number of graduates practicing in primary care, retain full-time students from disadvantaged backgrounds including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and increase the number of graduates working in medically underserved communities; thereby increasing access to oral healthcare for those residents. Juanita Lozano-Pineda, DDS, MPH, associate dean of external affairs and director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence in the School of Dentistry, has dedicated much of her career to recruiting and retaining dental students who might not have choosen the profession of dentistry simply due to their background. “Factors that negatively influence the enrollment and graduation of disadvantaged students can be economic, educational or even environmental,” Dr. Pineda explains. “These factors include lower socio-economic status, inadequate academic preparation in high school, breaks in college, attendance, or enrollment, lower parental educational attainment, poor parental involvement in the college preparation process, and previously attending underperforming schools.” The Office of Veteran Services and Financial Aid will notify dental students in the fall regarding the annual application cycle for the SDS program. Eligible applications will then be reviewed by the School of Dentistry’s Scholarship Committee who will award the scholarships in early spring of 2021. The School of Dentistry would like to thank Dr. Pineda, Vidal Balderas, DDS, MPH, associate professor, and Jeffery Hicks, DDS, professor, for their dedicated commitment to the SDS program and we congratulate them on this successful grant renewal.