Dental care and community service are two guideposts of the Gateway to Oral Health Foundation and Mound City Dental Society’s Derrick O. Frye Scholarships.
Named after their late colleague, Dr. Derrick Frye, co-founder of the school-based Gateway to Oral Health, the scholarships support African–American dental school students from St. Louis who are in their third or fourth year of dental school.
“One of the primary criteria for the award is that we are trying to target minorities from St. Louis who are wanting to come back to St. Louis and help us to serve the uninsured and underinsured population,” said Byron DuVall, D.D.S., chairman of the Mound City scholarship committee and co-founder of Gateway to Oral Health.
The first two recipients received renewable awards in St. Louis on Aug. 21. Recipient Ash Rohra, a third year dental student at the University of Michigan, received a $2,500 scholarship. Whitney Caldwell, a third year student at Howard University School of Dentistry, received a $1,000 scholarship.
“Once we select a recipient, we ask them to take a pledge to come back for one year and work with us in some capacity to fulfill that responsibility,” DuVall added.
The future dentists could work it out in a number of ways, he said, such as working at health fairs or in local clinics that are in dire need of dentists or working at schools through Gateway.
“We currently serve about seven different school districts and all of those school districts are in low-income areas,” DuVall said.
Their service is for a year, but of course it is hoped that by starting their career in dentistry here will keep the new dentists in St. Louis.
“So we can continue to replace the dentists we know we are going to lose through attrition,” Duvall said.
To support the scholarship fund endowment, on Sat. Sept. 22, the organizations will hold the third annual Derrick O. Frye Memorial Scholarship Golf Tournament at Eagle Springs Golf Course in North St. Louis County. For more information, call 314-872-3930.
