Students

Under the supervision of Dr. Courtney Chinn, Jason Lin has investigated the potential for dental institutions and student-run programs to improve the oral health of vulnerable and underserved populations throughout New York City. In support of this project, Jason was one of five recipients from medical, dental, and nursing students across the United States to receive the Margaret E. Mahoney Fellowship from the New York Academy of Medicine in the summer of 2013.

During this fellowship, his research team focused on health policy, with an emphasis on enrichment and leadership activities. They met with several leaders in the healthcare field, including former Surgeon General David Satcher and the president of the Commonwealth Fund, David Blumenthal. At the conclusion of the fellowship, Jason and the other four fellows presented to distinguished faculty, mentors, and healthcare leaders at both the Academy of Medicine and the Commonwealth Fund.

Additionally, Jason was awarded the Basic Science Award at the Birnberg Research Symposium at Columbia University for another project with Dr. David Figurski in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology.

The project (“Does the Inverted Repeat Region Near the Promoter Affect Tight Adherence (tad) Locus Expression In Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans?”) utilizes a new genetic recombineering technique that uses shorter primers. With this project, Jason represented the College of Dental Medicine at the Hinman Research Symposium in Nashville, Tennessee.

A former product design team member at GE and Apple, Al Huynh brings a diverse range of career experiences to the College of Dental Medicine. His industry responsibilities greatly sharpened his acuity to technical detail and his ability to collaborate with team members, two skill sets he feels have prepared him well for the dental profession. The sense of being able to provide for his community, however, was what attracted Al to dentistry and to the College of Dental Medicine in particular.

Al began serving his community from his first year at the College of Dental Medicine and currently serves as the president of the class of 2018. Beyond the classroom, Al strives to regularly engage in community outreach projects in underserved areas, as he feels the dental profession has granted him the opportunity to provide care to those with limited accessibility. He is also attracted to the possibility of contributing to humanitarian relief efforts in areas affected by natural disasters. Al is passionate about giving back to the country that has given his family numerous opportunities, and in October, 2014, Al was sworn in as an Officer in the U.S. Navy Dental Corps.

Al has an interest in a variety of fields within dentistry including general dentistry, orthodontics, and prosthodontics. He keeps an open mind as to what he will do and where he will serve, but one thing he knows for certain is that the dental education he will receive at Columbia will prepare him for a lifelong career as a dental professional.

When it came to choosing a career path, DDS student John Yoo always had music in the back of his mind -- he began singing competitively when he was five years old. But John felt that a career in the arts lacked the one thing that was most important to him: making a direct, substantial difference in people's lives.

With his mother as his coach, John sang throughout his childhood and began auditioning for choral groups in middle school. "I practiced really hard, constantly recording myself, picking out the smallest flaws, improving my technique and my expressiveness, and repeating," he said. His painstaking efforts paid off, and in his junior year he placed second in New Jersey, qualified for 2 All-Easterns, and received the New Jersey Governor’s Award in Music.

As a freshman at Duke University, John sang with Duke’s premier all-male a cappella group and a Korean band he formed with his friends. Academically, he focused on the pre-med track while doing research on the side.

Still ambivalent about his overall direction by senior year, John took a semester off to pursue clinical research with his PI, Dr. Charles Kim of Duke Radiology.

It was Dr. Kim who challenged him to find his true passion. "He asked me a few critical questions, like, 'Do you know for certain that you want to go into medicine? Have you considered your other interests?' " John recalled. "I realized I didn’t have a great answer. And Dr. Kim gave me time off to explore."

John tried adolescent music therapy at a psychiatric hospital, shadowed in the pediatric oncology ward, and spent more than one all-nighter in his dorm room recording K-pop love ballads. "One afternoon, I shadowed my first dentist and my mind was blown," he said. "It was the first time I saw the endless possibilities of community service through dentistry."

For John, dentistry felt like the profession in which all his interests and talents intersected. "I loved the idea of seeing dentistry as the artistic medium through which I could help people--many, many people."

John had always dreamed of living in New York City, but at the College of Dental Medicine, it's the community feeling he loves best. "We are all one big family here, from underclassmen to upperclassmen to faculty to alumni. It’s so evident in how we treat and look out for one another."

He's been able to pursue his passion for research as well, working with Dr. Shantanu Lal to investigate the latest "SmartBrush," a Bluetooth-connected toothbrush that provides data on a user's brushing habits.

"This field is constantly moving forward with new technology and evidence-based dentistry," he said. "Being involved in research is like being part of the future of dentistry."

Now finishing his second year at the College of Dental Medicine, John hasn't looked back. Despite a busy schedule, he hasn't given up his music, either. He still sings with his old band, Seoul Singers, and he recently formed a new boy band with two first-year students. “Check out the ‘K-Town Boyz’ on our world tour of NYC!”