Dental assisting students graduate Manatee Technical College

grads reciting pledge

Dental Assisting graduates of Manatee Technical College recite the Dental Assistants Pledge at the conclusion of the January 14 ceremony at MTC East. Pictured here are Savannah King (back left), Kimberly Kitzman (center), Hailey Bokar (center right), and Victor Vergara (back right). Ninety percent of the students earned a national certification; 90% of them graduated with job offers.

(Bradenton, FL—January 15, 2016) The Dental Assisting Technology and Management program at Manatee Technical College held a graduation ceremony on Thursday evening at the East Campus. Eleven students completed the accredited applied technology diploma program. All have earned state certification; 90% have earned national certification. Nine of them are graduating with job offers; the other two expect offers next week.

“You are not my students anymore,” instructor Brenda Ware told the graduates, “You are my colleagues.”

Graduates Brittany Stergos and Savannah King spoke to their classmates. Stergos spoke of all they had overcome together, like a family. King addressed her instructors, saying, “You are the three best teachers I’ve ever had.”

Dental assisting program manager, Kimberly Bland, presented three MTC Awards of Excellence. Kimberly Kitzman won the award for Outstanding Academic Performance and Professionalism. Cash Godbold won the award for Outstanding Clinical Performance and Professionalism. Class president, Victor Vergara, won the award for Perfect Attendance—very difficult to achieve in a 1230-hour program.

Sarah Purcell asked her six-year-old daughter to pin her at the Manatee Technical College graduation from the Dental Assisting program, referring to her as “my biggest inspiration.”

Eleven students graduated from the accredited applied technology diploma program which takes only one year to complete.

Each graduate called a loved one to the front of the auditorium to pin them. Graduate Sarah Purcell called her six-year-old daughter to pin her, calling her, “my biggest inspiration.”

Instructor Gerry Hernandez also addressed the graduates, telling them, “This is not a job. It is a way of life. It is a journey of service and compassion.”

Hernandez closed with a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. “Never, never, be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

The ceremony ended with the graduates reciting the Dental Assistant Pledge.

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