From Dental Hygiene to a Life of Service and Storytelling
When I arrived in Eastern Oregon in 2010 to interview for OIT’s Dental Hygiene program, I was a city girl completely out of my element. I remember being shocked that I was interviewing in a town of only about 10,000 people (La Grande), and I was terrified.
Then I met a husband and wife (Ed Stuedli and Pauline Stuedli) who changed the course of my life. He was a dentist, she was a hygienist, and both had returned from retirement to teach at OIT. Somehow, my nerve-racking interview turned into a long conversation about food and cooking. Before I knew it, the interview was over. What I didn’t know was that I had just met two lifelong mentors and friends.
My two years at OIT were challenging, but they were also some of the most meaningful years of my life. I found a group of classmates who became family. We have remained best friends ever since. They were all in my wedding, and today our families are friends, our children have grown up together, and we continue to share life’s biggest moments.
OIT also introduced me to dental mission work, where I saw how deeply service could change a person’s life. After graduating, I carried that lesson with me. I volunteered at free dental clinics locally and traveled to countries around the world providing care to people who needed it.
But perhaps the greatest gift OIT gave me was something I didn’t expect: the power of storytelling.
Those two mentors taught me that caring for people begins with listening to their stories. That lesson eventually led me somewhere I never imagined. Today, I am an immigrant storyteller, sharing stories on stage about identity, belonging, resilience, and the human experience. I am writing a book and preparing for a TEDx talk next year.
I entered OIT hoping to become a dental hygienist.
I left with lifelong friendships, mentors who became family, a heart for service, and a voice I didn’t yet know I had.
And it all began with a very nervous city girl walking into a small-town interview and talking about food.