OLMITO — It’s history in the present tense.
Two students at the South Texas Academy for Medical Professions made history last month when they became the first students in Texas to take — and pass — the National Entry Level Dental Assistant exam.
“In all honesty, it still feels nonexistent to me because it was something for the first time in history,” said Kenneth Menguito, 18, a senior.
“It’s something so big I never thought that I could have done it,” he said. “Once I did do it I was elated. I was so happy.”
Carolina Lopez, the other student, was pretty happy, too.
“When I first found out the news I guess I was in shock,” said Carolina, 18. “I didn’t understand the scores at first. And then I got really excited.”
Kenneth and Carolina are both in the first year of the school’s dental assisting program, said Amanda Odom, spokesperson for South Texas Independent School District. STISD is made up of six magnet schools, one of which is the Medical Academy.
In their words
“There are three different parts to the exam. There’s a radiology X-ray part, there’s an infection control part, and there’s an anatomy part. Each part has to be passed separately. If you fail one part then technically you fail the entire test together. In addition, once you answer a question you cannot go back.”
Angela Villarreal
Dental science instructor
“Our teacher, she helped a lot. She would clear any doubts and helps us understand any physical concepts. We would stay really late. We would read our chats to just kind of comprehend all our concepts as well. Kind of just texting each other and take practice exams.”
Carolina Lopez, 18
“I continuously studied throughout the year. It’s a two-year course we crammed into a semester. A lot of reading, a lot of studying, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of labs, trying to prepare and getting ready for everything. I wanted to pursue this because it’s along the lines of my profession. I want to be an orthodontist so I wanted to start from the bottom and work my way up.”
Kenneth Menguito, 18
Odom said the Academy was approved to offer its students the national certification from the Dental Assisting National Board.
“There are several high schools around the United States approved for the program, but the Medical Academy was the first high school in Texas to gain acceptance,” she said.
Angela Villarreal, dental science teacher, was extremely proud of Kenneth and Carolina.
“It was a very difficult exam, and for students to take it and pass it first time around is awesome,” she said.
She described the inaugural effort as a sort of “stab in the dark.”
“I didn’t have anybody to consult with,” she said. “On the website for the Dental Assisting National Board you have a blueprint of the exam so I did print out the blue print.”
From there, however, she and the students had to just guess at which questions they would face.
“We didn’t have a lot of preparation material,” she said. “We had no idea that they weren’t going to be able to go back and make corrections. That was something they found out there. We’ll be a little bit more prepared for next year.”
