Students Volunteer at 2017 Special Olympics New York State Winter Games

New York Medical College and Touro College of Dental Medicine students stepped out to volunteer at the 2017 Special Olympics New York State Winter Games held at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y. on February 17-18. More than 1,000 athletes and coaches from across the state participated in games featuring competitions in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey and snowshoeing.

The New York Medical College (NYMC) American Academy for Developmental Medicine and Dentistry (AADMD) student chapter helped out with dental and vision examinations at the Games’ Special Smiles and Opening Eyes tent. The NYMC student volunteers were: standing from left, Amanda Feeney, School of Medicine (SOM) Class of 2018, Brian Yum, SOM Class of 2017 and Abrahim Caroci, D.M.D., a member of the AADMD executive board and a pediatric dentist. Seated from left: Mohammed Alzoobaee, SOM Class of 2020, Lauren Fink, SOM Class of 2019 and Jessica Park, M.S. student in the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences.

Students of the inaugural class and faculty members of Touro College of Dental Medicine volunteered at their first outreach program, Special Smiles, along with the local dental society, the Ninth District. During the event, faculty members worked with the students to provide oral health examinations for the Special Olympics athletes. The faculty also held presentations about clinical situations related to treating special needs patients for our students.  From top left: Melissa Levine, D.D.S., associate professor of dental medicine, Yu Jiang, Jessica Hilburg, D.D.S., associate professor of dental medicine, Sarika Ramaswamy, Eric Wachs, D.M.D., clinical assistant professor of dental medicine, Victoria White, Jillian Grant, Lana Hashim, and Ben Kahan.  From the bottom left:  Joonho Hong, Erin You, Shreya Jha, Arlyn Caris, Melinda Lee, Lisa Perlow, Mindy Monconduit, Allyson Brennan, Tara Ghanbarian and Jennifer Mehrens.