Mentors and Mentees: A Win-Win

Joanna Wang ’25 (DDS) wanted a “real world” perspective that only practicing dentists can provide, so when she found out the college’s Office of Alumni Affairs was launching a mentorship program, she was intrigued. She volunteered to work with Laura Scanlon, assistant director of College Alumni Affairs, to develop the program, which pairs experienced alumni with current students. “As students, it can be easy to have tunnel vision, focused only on the next exam or practical,” said Wang, who is the alumni chair of the Ohio State Chapter of the American Student Dental Association. “Through the mentorship program, I learned that a career in the dental field can be whatever I want it to be; that there are many different paths outside of the traditional route.”

Wang and her mentor, Avneet Sandhu, ’03 DDS, have met several times, and the pair quickly discovered they have similar backgrounds: both are Clevelanders who attended rival high schools. They laughed about how dental students used to call the college’s basement clinic lab “the Pits,” and Wang updated Dr. Sandhu on the all-college dance, now called the “Mandiball.”

Dr. Sandhu is an independent contractor working primarily at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Dental Clinic and at Worthington Pediatric Dentists, where Wang will soon visit to observe how a pediatric/orthodontic practice operates. Like Wang, Dr. Sandhu was pleased to learn of the program. “I thought, ‘Wow, it would have been great to have mentors when I was a student—someone to explain how the transition from dental school to dentistry out in the real world might feel,’” Dr. Sandhu said. “Of course, students’ paths are different. Some know they want to specialize; others plan general practices. Some are not sure of their plans, and that is okay, too. I could tell that being able to discuss this was very beneficial for Joanna.”

Dr. Sandhu finds that, after being in practice for almost twenty years, an added benefit of the program is the opportunity “to reconnect with the college and to see all the new and exciting changes since graduating.”

Generations of Mentorship

Mick Stone, ’94 DDS, participates in the mentoring program to give back to his alma mater while helping students. He said he was fortunate to practice for his first ten years with his father, Jim Stone, ’67 DDS, before the elder Dr. Stone retired from private practice and became a clinic director and assistant professor-clinical in the college’s Division of Restorative and Prosthetic Dentistry. “I had the luxury of having him as a mentor, as well as his partners, Drs. Mike Walz and Jack Fauster. That’s more than 60 years of combined experience.”

He spent most of his career as a partner with Defiance Dental Group in Defiance, Ohio, before relocating to the Columbus area, where he now works at several offices. He has much in common with his mentee, Madelyn Utz Larj ’24 (DDS). For starters, his father is her clinic director.

Although Larj’s father, Derik Utz, ’99 DDS, is a dentist, she finds that the different perspectives she learns through the mentoring program are helpful as she makes decisions about her career. “Dr. (Mick) Stone told me that working with his father was one of the best things he ever did,” Larj said. “That made me think I may want to start out working with my dad.” Unsure what direction she wants her career to take, she said, “The mentorship program provides an outsider’s perspective on things that didn’t occur to me.”

Larj was introduced to dentistry as a young girl. She remembers answering the phone when patients made emergency calls to her father at home. “I like the interactions between my father and the patients in the office or in some store or restaurant in town,” she said. You see patients several times a year and build relationships. Dentistry is an artistic career, and I like that you have to be quick-handed and quick-minded. It keeps you young.”

She finds that her mentor’s varied experience is especially helpful. “He’s a great mentor. I feel comfortable asking him about anything, and you can tell he loves dentistry.”