STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
B e c k y Wa r n k e n
A S D A I n v o l v e m e n t E n r i c h e s S t u d e n t’ s E d u c a t i o n After graduation, Becky Warnken, D ‘13, is flying south. During her time at Marquette, she embraced Milwaukee and learned to endure the winters. But Tampa, Fla., is home, where her parents still live and where her husband has found work, so that’s where she plans to begin her dental career. Warnken’s extensive involvement in the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) has not only augmented her education, but may have helped her get a job. As an ASDA trustee this year, Warnken sat on the ADA Council on Access, Prevention and Interprofessional Relations (CAPIR) as a student representative. The CAPIR chair, a private practitioner in Milwaukee, was an MUSoD alumna who helped connect Warnken with her fellow alums and contacts in Tampa. Warnken’s involvement with ASDA began during her D1 year when she was asked to help out with Marquette ASDA’s annual Vendor Fair, and from there, she says, “it just kind of snowballed.” She traveled to Chicago for a regional meeting to learn more about the organization. “Immediately, I knew that it was something I wanted to be a part of, that it was important to my profession and that I would want to have it in my life down the road,” she says. She was elected vice president of the Marquette chapter as a D2, and served as president during her D3 year.
he has been a great mentor throughout dental school.”
Class of
2013
Hooding and Graduation
Warnken has attended a number of ASDA conferences, and says that the one that excited her most was a late 2012 National Leadership Conference she attended as ASDA’s District VII trustee. “It is an entire conference based on leadership skills, which there just really is not time to address in the dental school curriculum. It’s such an important part of running a practice — we have to remember that we are essentially going to run a small business — those of us going into the traditional model of dentistry. And even if you don’t, you’ll still be working with a team. It was a really inspiring weekend.”
“ASDA gives you opportunities to network that I wouldn’t have otherwise known about, and those relationships have been important throughout my dental school career, and will continue to be important in my practice. ” In 2008, MUSoD became an “auto-enroll” school, meaning ASDA membership dues are built into students’ tuition, something Warnken supports. “ASDA gives you opportunities to network that I wouldn’t have otherwise known about, and those relationships have been important throughout my dental school career, and will continue to be important in my practice,” says Warnken, who says she hopes to convey the value of the membership to other Marquette students. “That’s one reason I have been so drawn to ASDA — because I’ve formed relationships with students all over the country, company representatives, other dentists. Also, in my leadership roles, I really started to form a relationship with Dean Lobb as well, and
Because she helped run the conference, Warnken has been asked to plan the second annual ASDA National Leadership Conference, ensuring that her involvement in ASDA will continue post-graduation. She will also continue on ADA’s CAPIR, and is already a member of the Florida Dental Association. Warnken admits that the trustee role did cut into clinic time in her D4 year, with frequent travel for meetings and conferences, but says both Dean Lobb and her group leader were “extremely supportive of my involvement, as long as when I was at clinic, I was getting things done,” she says. “I think I’m blessed for the emphasis Marquette puts on organized dentistry. Otherwise, I could not have been nearly as involved, and I don’t think I would be as ready as I am for private practice if it weren’t for those opportunities.”
Emily LaBadie, Madeline Anfang, Jennifer Fehrman, Rebecca Warnken, Joseph Flask, Carissa Molina 14
D E N TA L I M A G E S
Daniel Snedaker, Sara Klasinski, Monica Urda, Lauren Mies D E N TA D L EI M N TA A GLE SI M A 1 1G E S
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