REENblack: Pinning Ceremony

Friday night was the Dental Hygiene Pinning Ceremony. This is somewhat unique to dental hygiene, and not all DH programs do it anymore. Ours wasn't as fancy as some, but it was still a nice evening. (Our class voted on donating most of the money we had for the ceremony to one of our classmates to retake the clinical board exam - she didn't pass because she was told a patient would work who didn't.)

The kids waited patiently for the ceremony to start.

I love our kids!

Our teachers.

(Mrs. Branscomb-one of the many clinic teachers, Mrs. Kucera-second year instructor, Mrs. Polan-first year instructor, a speaker, and Mrs. Hillis-director and instructor)

Brandy, me, and two other girls being recognized for winning a scholarship during the program.

(Kodak moment!)

The ladies that won for their table clinics.

Being recognized for "Outstanding Achievement on National Boards."

Being recognized for "Outstanding Achievement on Clinical Boards."

We were told that a few students would get awards at the Pinning Ceremony. The seven awards include: Nebraska Student of the Year (announced at the NE DH meeting earlier), Iowa Student of the Year (also announced earlier), the Lavender Ribbon award (lavender is the national DH color), the Colgate STAR Award, the Golden Scaler Award, PDT Outstanding Clinician, and the Director's Award (Academic Excellence, Outstanding Clinical Skills, and Dedication to the profession of Dental Hygiene). Before each award was given, one of the instructors would say something about the student getting it.

Mrs. Polan (probably my favorite instructor) announces who gets the Golden Scaler Award every year (this is the second best award you can get). She started talking about the recipient, when she said "this person sent hundreds of toothbrushes to her friend in Africa to help orphans in need better their oral health" ... I knew it was me!

I was honestly in total shock and surprise! I had no idea the instructors thought so highly of me! My game-plan from the beginning was to do my best and try to stay under the radar so I wouldn't get picked on. I guess it worked!!!

I have to admit, I got a bit teary eyed because I was SERIOUSLY not expecting to receive an award!!!

(I'll take a picture of the award later, its REALLY cool!)

Two other awards were announced, then the last, and most distinguished, the Director's Award. Mrs. Hillis is a woman of few words. She likes to keep things to the point. She said that her's is the best award (haha) and that the person receiving it already received another award, so she wasn't going to go on and on about her. I thought I knew who was going to get it...I was wrong!!! She said, "The Director's Award goes to Elissa Black!"

Again, I was in shock!!!

She told me as she handed me my certificate that there will be a plaque in the new DH wing of IWCC with my name on it!

I still can't believe I won those awards! I'm SO happy Roby and the kids were there to share that moment with me! :-)

After awards, we all received our RDH pins. We received a gift from the Iowa chapter of the Dental Hygiene Association, and a pin that has the emblem, our school, and our initials on the back. As we were getting these things, we each wrote a Thank You to family/friends.

I thanked Roby for all his support and for being my guinea pig for EVERYTHING. I thanked Ethan for being so proud of me and for always saying, "good job mom!" And I thanked Natalie for reminding me to relax and do girlie things like paint nails. I was able to look at each of them while my thank you was being read. I loved seeing the smiles on their faces! It is a moment I will never forget!!!

We were then "inducted" into being an RDH. We read the RDH oath together.

Following the oath, Brandi, Brandy, and I handed out awards for everyone in the class that we made for each other. One was, "Best at putting patients at ease" another was "Strongest and most passionate about pretzels" mine was "Next Esther Wilkins and good role model". (Esther Wilkins is the guru of DH.)

I then played the slideshow I made of pictures taken over the last two years. (Its kind of long...)