Katherine Merrick

UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2021

I grew up in South Burlington, Vermont. I attended Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, where I received my B.A. in Chemistry.

Related Experience: For the last three years, I have volunteered as a mentor at Beeman Elementary School, the public elementary school in New Haven, Vermont. Once a week I go to Beeman to see my mentee, now a sixth-grader. We talk, do homework, play outside, play board games, and play basketball. While at Middlebury, I took classes in Health Care Ethics, Topics in Reproductive Medicine, and Gender Health and the Environment because of my interest in the intersections of reproductive medicine, health care access, and dentistry.

I sought involvement in UST because I have deep roots in my home state of Vermont and want to return to and provide care to underserved populations in my home state. I want to join the Urban Service Track to develop literacy and competency in public health, health policy, and patient advocacy and to build skills in leadership and interprofessional collaboration to best serve Vermonters. Vermont is facing an impending dentist shortage. According to the Vermont Department of Health, as of 2015, 50% of Vermont’s dentists are over the age of 55 and 35% are over the age of 60. I believe the only way the impending dentist shortage in Vermont can be solved is by the influx of young dentists who commit to practicing here long-term.