Scholar All Smiles Exploring Dentistry
Few teenagers would describe a trip to the dentist as exciting, let alone life changing. But for Ella ’27, a day student from Norwich, Vermont, an exploratory visit to a family friend’s endodontics practice wound up having a profound impact. The visit was so influential, in fact, that Ella plans to become an endodontist — a specialized dentist focused on preserving ones’ original teeth through procedures like root canals — and even designed a unique Cullman Scholarship experience to learn more about the field and helping others.
As such, the Kimball Union Academy junior embarked on a two-week journey last summer that began at the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and ended with a service trip to Bali.
“These experiences helped shape my understanding of healthcare from very different perspectives,” said Ella, a manager for the girls’ varsity lacrosse team and intern for the Athletics Department. “As someone who’s interested in a career in healthcare, it was valuable to learn about the importance of an integrated approach between public health and medicine — not just in theory, but in real life.”
Considered among KUA’s highest honors, the Cullman Scholarship Program was established in 1983 with a gift from Hugh Cullman ’42 and supports students in off-campus study opportunities. In 2025, Ella and nine other students were awarded scholarships to pursue an area of study of their choosing that develops leadership skills, global and environmental awareness, and service to others.
Ella spent the first week of her experience at the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston, where she took part in its “Mini Dental School,” designed for higher schoolers interested in the profession. Her and her peers attended lectures from specialists in a range of dental fields, and participated in numerous hands-on activities like suturing, creating wax-ups and fillings, and using digital imaging technology to scan teeth.
The program reaffirmed that endodontics, not potentially more lucrative specialties like orthodontics, is her preferred field because of the emphasis placed on preserving patients’ teeth.
“As an endodontist, what you're thinking about is, how can I preserve the original tooth because that's what's most important,” Ella explained. “A lot of people will cover up their teeth with veneers or things like that, which is really the opposite of what I want to do. I want to help people keep their teeth for as long as possible, so they don't have to get cosmetic or larger procedures down the road.”
The Tufts program concluded with group research projects in which Ella and her classmates presented on the impact of nutrition on oral hygiene. They were surprised to learn that it’s better to consume sugary foods all at once rather than gradually because enamel damage relates more to how long teeth are exposed to sugar than the total amount of sugar consumed.
Following her experience in Boston, Ella traveled more than 9,000 miles to Bali where she learned about the healthcare challenges facing the Indonesian province’s citizens. As a volunteer with the Bali Island Health Expedition, Ella partnered with Indonesian medical students in conducting free community health checks.
Ella’s group went door to door, measuring residents’ height, weight, blood sugar and blood pressure to screen for conditions like diabetes and hypertension, completing more than 300 health assessments over the course of the program. They inspected families’ water sources for contamination from disease-causing larva and visited a local elementary school where they led workshops on nutrition, exercise, and sanitation.
“Bali really helped me with the human side of things because you're seeing situations that we hear about, but don't usually see in everyday life,” Ella said. “And so that just kind of grew my passion for helping those in need.”
As a junior, Ella still has some time before her college application process begins but said her week at Tufts has certainly landed the school a spot on her list of contenders.
“These experiences confirmed that dentistry is absolutely the career path I’d like to take in life, which will help me greatly in the years to come,” she said. “I am deeply grateful to the Cullman family for supporting these opportunities through their scholarship, and I strongly encourage all 10th and 11th graders to apply.”
