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DISCOVERY! |
1 Marquette University School of Dentistry, 1801 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53233, USA;
2 The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston;
3 University of Michigan School of Dentistry;
4 University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine;
5 The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio;
6 University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; and
7 The Harvard School of Public Health
* corresponding author, james.roger{at}mu.edu
Martin Taubman, Editor
ABSTRACT
The 2005–06 officers of the National Student Research Group (NSRG) of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) have summarized their activities in developing the NSRG into an effective organization aimed at fostering future dental researchers. The officers have focused their efforts on establishing opportunities for the pre-doctoral dental student members of the AADR to participate in and formally present their research during dental school. In addition to the many research awards and fellowships already sponsored by the NSRG and the AADR, the NSRG has established new travel awards for students to present at specialty groups’ annual meetings. Other recent initiatives have included a contact list of all dental schools, along with local student research group (SRG) leadership contacts, advice during the creation of a new teaching fellowship opportunity, fundraising efforts to support student research and the NSRG infrastructure, and successfully pursuing a student voting position on the AADR Board. A brief addendum detailing recent activities and future initiatives is also included. The article describes membership requirements, selection of officers, and contacts for additional information. We hope that this Discovery! will serve to increase the awareness of students, researchers, and administrators regarding the role of the NSRG.
KEY WORDS: National Student Research Group (NSRG) • American Association for Dental Research (AADR) • travel award • dental specialty • student research
INTRODUCTION
All student members of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) are automatically members of the National Student Research Group (NSRG). The function of the NSRG is to encourage students to participate in academic research and scholarship. This most often takes the form of mentored research experiences, but ranges from informal student projects to doctoral-level programs. The NSRG informs students of travel and presentation opportunities, provides travel/research awards, promotes communication among local student research groups (SRG), fosters future members of the AADR, and encourages students to consider academic research as a career possibility. This paper serves to describe the most recent efforts of the NSRG officers during the 2004–06 academic years.
In 2006, there were 1122 student members in the AADR (27%), and both the number and percentage of student membership have been increasing for the past 6 years (Table 1
). The NSRG Board is elected by dental student members and is the voice for students within the AADR. Many join the AADR to present at an AADR Annual Meeting; this provides the officers a window of time to show students how the NSRG, AADR, and research can affect their careers and offer many opportunities beyond their limited pre-doctoral research experience. Student membership benefits include reduced dues, discounted registration fees for meetings, eligibility to apply for AADR student awards/fellowships, and access to the Journal of Dental Research. Members receive information regarding NSRG Board activities throughout the year via quarterly newsletters and periodic updates and announcements of award application deadlines, summer research opportunities, and other initiatives.
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For those students interested in running for office in the NSRG, this process takes place in April, following the AADR Annual Meeting. Students submit a biography to the AADR Central Office, and voting is open for one month, with results announced in May. Students interested in serving on the Board are encouraged to contact the officers in the student section of the AADR Web site (http://www.dentalresearch.org).
The officers meet 3 times per year: once in the summer, a mid-winter meeting, and finally at the AADR Annual Meeting. These meetings are crucial to effective planning of each year’s initiatives and activities, and to the development of teamwork among the officers. The President and President-elect also join the AADR Board of Directors at their interim meetings to foster communication between the groups in achieving the mission of the AADR.
The NSRG Board also draws upon the expertise of two faculty advisors: Dr. Anthony Iacopino from Marquette University School of Dentistry, and Dr. Robert Spears from Baylor College of Dentistry. In addition to serving as a sounding board for ideas and providing counsel, the faculty advisors’ role is to ensure consistency throughout year-to-year transitions. The 2005–06 student and faculty members of the NSRG Board are listed in Table 2.
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During the past two years, the officers of the NSRG have developed and implemented initiatives designed to increase the impact of the Group on student research. Building upon the foundation of previous administrations, the officers have successfully established several new opportunities for members. Four key goals were addressed:
(1) Increase Awareness of the NSRG
NSRG members and/or potential members can be classified into three groups: students who get involved in research and learn about the NSRG from their mentors, those who join as student members of the AADR but are unaware of the NSRG, and students who have not yet been involved in research. These different groups were approached from multiple angles.
An NSRG brochure was created that included descriptions of the goals of the NSRG and membership benefits. The brochure has been an effective way to recruit members at the local SRG level. The NSRG brochure can be requested from the AADR Central Office for distribution to students (http://www.dentalresearch.org). To summarize all the awards, fellowships, and competitions available to NSRG members, an awards summary poster was created and has been made available for download from the AADR Web site (http://www.dentalresearch.org). Additionally, the NSRG Board has begun collaborative efforts with the leaders of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) and the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Council of Students, to discuss overlapping issues.
A T-shirt that served as both a fundraiser for the NSRG and a way to promote the Group visibly was created. To date, more than 350 T-shirts have been sold to summer research programs and local SRGs. T-shirts can be ordered from the current officers, whose contact information is available from the student section of the AADR Web site (http://www.dentalresearch.org).
(2) Increase Contact with the Local SRGs
In an effort to update the contact information at the local level and create a more informal way to reach student officers and faculty advisors, an e-mail campaign commenced in October, 2005, to identify the SRG Faculty Advisor and the student leaders at every dental school in the country. To date, 45 of the 56 (80%) US dental schools have responded and remain in active contact. With this current list of students and faculty, we are confident that contact information for the remaining schools will be obtained.
As a pilot project, this updated local SRG leadership list was entered into an independent NSRG e-mail account. While the NSRG newsletter remained the primary method of communication to membership, the Board wanted to test a more informal method to reach active members. Because of the success of this pilot project, the NSRG will be creating official list-serve distribution e-mail accounts for different member subsections, such as: SRG Officers, SRG Mentors, and Dual-degree trainees.
(3) Expand Membership Benefits
Many different opportunities to present student research exist. In addition to conferences specifically intended for students and the larger AADR/IADR, ADA, and ADEA Annual Meetings, specialty-group professional organizations also hold annual meetings where research relevant to the specialty is presented. Given that the percentage of senior dental students pursuing specialty training has increased from 17.9% in 1986 to 25.4% in 2004 (Weaver et al., 2005), the NSRG Board was interested in stimulating interaction between dental student researchers and their future colleagues in various specialties. In 2005, the Board developed a proposal for the establishment of specialty-group-sponsored travel awards that would provide funding for NSRG members to present their specialty-related research at the corresponding group’s annual meeting. The awards also provide a mechanism for specialty groups to recruit top pre-doctoral dental students into their specialty.
To date, the NSRG has sent proposals to all national individual specialty groups and has established annual travel awards for students to present at the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (AAOMP), and American Academy of Fixed Prosthodontics (AAFP) Annual Meetings. The specialty group selected abstracts, and NSRG members have already presented at the AAPD and AAOMP meetings in 2006. Tufts University Dental Student Alexander Moheban presented his research on Comparison of Flexural Modulus, Fracture Toughness, and Flexural Strength of Composite Provisional Fixed Prosthodontic Restorations at the AAFP annual meeting in February, 2007.
The NSRG contacted the pilot-year awardees to gather feedback. Brianne Henry, of Marquette University School of Dentistry, presented her research about Near Infra-red Light Treatment to Rescue Hertwig’s Epithelial Root Sheath Cells Injured by Chemotherapy at the AAPD annual meeting in May, 2006. Ms. Henry reported that her experience solidified her desire to specialize in pediatrics and allowed her to "meet several program directors and residents from different programs and learn first-hand what to look for in a program". Lisa Trevino, of The University of Texas Health Center at Houston, also presented her research on The Interaction between PITX2A and LEF-1 Proteins in Axenfeld-Rieger Syndrome at the AAPD annual meeting. She reported, "I learned that the incorporation of research into my professional career was an absolutely attainable goal." David Fischer, of Marquette University School of Dentistry, described a similar experience at the AAOMP Annual Meeting, where he presented his case review of Bisphosphonate-associated Osteonecrosis. In addition to speaking with the current AAOMP President, Mr. Fischer discussed bisphosphonate osteonecrosis with authors of multiple articles on the topic, and experienced "four unforgettable days" of CE courses, research presentations, and AAOMP social events. The success of this pilot year confirms the need for expansion and promotion of further specialty award programs. A list of updated awards and submission deadlines can be found on both the AADR and the AAOMP Web sites (http://www.dentalresearch.org; http://www.aaomp.org/general/annualmtg.html).
The NSRG membership encompasses all student members of the AADR, including dental residents, graduate students, and new scientists in post-doctoral positions. These additional groups represent untapped resources for the NSRG and AADR, as both student members and potential long-term AADR members. Until recently, the NSRG Constitution stated that officers of the NSRG must be pre-doctoral dental students. An amendment to the Constitution allowing all student members of the AADR to participate on the NSRG Board was brought to the membership in 2007. It passed unanimously and went into effect immediately. By diversifying the Board with different types of student members, the NSRG hopes to add postdoctoral opportunities, mentorship of students by young investigators, and job placement information for future dental researchers to its extensive list of benefits.
(4) Increase the Impact of the NSRG within the AADR
Although students make up 27% of the membership in the AADR, they have not had an active vote in the organization. To increase the overall student impact in the AADR, the NSRG Board set out to secure a full voting position on the AADR Board. This seat was envisioned as a one-year position for the President of the NSRG, and would carry with it all the rights of a full AADR Board Member. The NSRG Councilor attended the Council session at the AADR 2006 Annual Meeting and presented the Student Board Member proposal. The Council approved this initiative, and the amendment was passed in the fall of 2006. The first student AADR Board member will take his seat after the 2007 Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Parallel with progress toward gaining a vote on the AADR Board, the NSRG Board has experienced a strengthened connection between the leadership of the AADR and the NSRG. The NSRG contributed ideas and feedback to the AADR and IADR Boards of Directors on several issues, including the recent change in student dues, problems with student member retention, the creation of a potential International Student Research Group, and the transition from NSRG member to full AADR member.
This year, along with several other student leadership groups, the NSRG was asked to provide feedback to the AADR and the ADEA to help design the new ADA Foundation-sponsored Academic Dental Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP). This program provides a stipend and opportunities for ten pre-doctoral dental students to obtain teaching experience while in dental school (http://www.adea.org/ADCFP/ADCFP.pdf). The NSRG Board met with directors of the program and corresponded via e-mail to help the program take its final form. The Board also disseminated information about the program to the NSRG membership.
2006–2007 ADDENDUM AND FUTURE INITIATIVES
One year ago, at the 2006 Annual Meeting in Orlando, the NSRG sponsored a discussion about student retention, including a survey about membership benefits. More than 80 students and faculty members participated, and cited a lack of know-how as the number one barrier to organizing a local SRG at their schools. Based on these comments, the 2006–2007 NSRG Board focused on updating and revising its Constitution and student handbook with "How-To?" tools for local SRGs. The handbook specifically addressed the concerns raised at the luncheon and was formally announced at the 2007 AADR Annual Meeting in New Orleans. It is now available on the AADR Web site (http://www.dentalresearch.org).
At the 2007 Annual Session, the NSRG Board initiated a meeting with several students from Canada in a consulting role, helping these students begin to establish a Canadian Student Research Group (CSRG). The NSRG and potential CSRG hope to collaborate ultimately, to create the first International Student Research Group.
During the NSRG Business meeting in New Orleans, incoming President James M. Rogér outlined the very broad agenda for the future NSRG. In addition to supporting the above advances, the new Board members will focus on developing a 5-year plan, expanding the degree of communication even further with its "Get The Word Out" campaign, developing further online resources for all members, and working with the membership coordinators at the AADR/IADR Central Office to promote member transition from student member to full membership in the AADR.
CONCLUSION
Throughout the past 2 years, the NSRG Board has had success in establishing opportunities for students to participate in research during their pre-doctoral dental training. The NSRG Board will continue to encourage students to participate in the existing programs, as well as invite students to provide feedback about their needs for further opportunities in research and scholarship during dental and graduate school.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank our Faculty Mentors, Drs. Anthony Iacopino and Robert Spears, for all their advice throughout our tenure on the Board. We bid a fond farewell to Dr. Iacopino and welcome incoming faculty advisor, Dr. Janet Guthmiller. We are also very grateful to the generosity of Past President of the NSRG, Dr. Erik Harrington. Finally, we thank IADR/AADR Executive Director, Dr. Christopher Fox, and Central Office liaisons, Marissa Naspinski and Denise Streszoff.
Received September 26, 2006; Last revision December 19, 2006; Accepted December 20, 2006
REFERENCES
http://www.aaomp.org/general/annualmtg.html
http://www.adea.org/Resources/ADCFP/ADCFP.pdf
Weaver RG, Chmar JE, Haden BK, Valachovic RW (2005). Annual ADEA survey of dental school seniors: 2005 graduating class. J Dent Edu 69:595–619.
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