Valenzuela awarded two scholarships from ADEA

Kristen Valenzuela, Master of Science in Dental Hygiene candidate at UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry, has been named the 2024 recipient of two separate scholarship awards from the American Dental Education Association. She was presented with the ADEA/Crest Oral-B Scholarship for Dental Hygiene Students Pursuing Academic Careers and the ADEA/Sigma Phi Alpha Linda DeVore Scholarship at the 2024 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition in New Orleans on March 12.

The ADEA/Crest Oral-B Scholarship is designed to support dental hygiene students who are pursuing education beyond an associate degree and demonstrate a keen interest in academic careers. The ADEA/Sigma Phi Alpha Linda DeVore Scholarship honors Professor Linda Rubinstein DeVore’s 30-year dental education career and her active involvement in dental hygiene education, scholarship, and public service.

“I’m very honored to be able to bring something like this back to UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry,” said Valenzuela. “I applied with the hopes of having a good chance I would receive one scholarship, so I never would’ve thought in a million years that I would be awarded two. I was incredibly honored and humbled when I read the rest of [her awardee] email.”

Being no stranger to academic excellence, Valenzuela’s latest achievements represent the fruits of the labor she’s put forth in her career inside the classroom, as a student leader, and as a practicing dental hygienist. She graduated at the top of the School of Dentistry’s Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene Class of 2020, while also serving as the class vice president, Hispanic Student Dental Association Vice President, and Student Chapter of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association President.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree, Valenzuela worked in private practice for three years. However, through the clinical setting, she found a larger calling within the field of dental hygiene.

“I love clinical practice, but I was realizing more and more that my favorite part of the clinical practice was the teaching aspect,” she said. “When I’m doing oral hygiene instruction with my patients, I’m able to teach them in a way they understand and can improve their health by making changes in their daily routine. The words I say and the manner in which I say them make a positive impact on my patients.”

Valenzuela began her teaching journey by tutoring first-year hygiene students in pre-clinic courses and dental students preparing for their clinical board exams. As part of the Master of Science in Dental Hygiene program, she is now able to see the teaching curriculum and the teaching skills that are a part of the courses being performed in a clinical setting.

“Kristen is a self-directed, compassionate, and hardworking individual,” said Victoria Patrounova, RDH, MHA, director of the Dental Hygiene Program. “At the beginning of the pandemic, she started making masks for health care and frontline workers. It was not a surprise that Kristen was awarded multiple scholarships, including HDA Foundation, Texas Dental Hygienists Association, Houston HDA, and Carus Dental Endowment for her outstanding academics, community service, and compassionate care.”

During her time as an undergraduate at the School of Dentistry, Valenzuela was nominated by faculty and received the 2020 Outstanding Dental Hygiene Student in Texas Award. She was also named an Albert Schweitzer fellow and completed a fellowship with TIRR Memorial Hermann with a year-long project that focused on oral hygiene education of spinal cord injury patients and their caregivers.