CASPer Tutoring and Test Prep Service: Showing Your Best Qualities Made Simple

Clara is a first-year dental student at the University of Michigan. Clara also obtained her Bachelor's degree at the University of Michigan, double majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology and French. She graduated Summa Cum Laude within three years, completing an Honors Thesis Research project with High Honors. During her undergraduate career, Clara was very involved with research and science outreach volunteering.

After obtaining her Bachelor's degree, Clara moved to Bethesda, Maryland, for a two-year fellowship pursuing translational research at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. During this time, she had success applying to dental schools: she received interviews at Michigan, UPenn, UCSF, McGill, Harvard, and UNC, leading to many acceptances and merit scholarship offers.

Outside of work and school, Clara is passionate about expanding access to dental care by getting involved with community dental clinics and patient education. Clara is also continuing her involvement in research by pursuing an independent project on oral squamous cell carcinoma.

As an independent tutor, Clara has helped many pre-dents build their applications, DAT test prep, and essay writing. Clara is excited to help future dental students achieve their dream of acceptance into their schools of choice at Inspira Advantage.

As an undergraduate, Jason was interested in becoming a health provider but was undecided about what field he would pursue until his sophomore year. He joined many clubs, was the president of his fraternity, a teaching assistant, and conducted research in bio-analytical and immunology labs. Jason also worked for the nonprofit Bridge to Health USA, where he helped underserved communities in Baltimore obtain better access to medical and dental care. Jason privately tutored undergraduate and high school students in the sciences in his free time.

He graduated with honors in biochemistry and a minor in biology from Trinity College. He matriculated into the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, where he is currently in his first year. At UConn, he continues to be an active participant in student life, serving on the Academic Integrity Board, conducting research and serving the people of Hartford through SNDA and ADEA.

Jinnu studied at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. His alma mater was NYU, and he had an amazing term as president of the Pre-Dental Society. Jinnu finds inspiration in helping his peers, and other students realize their dreams of pursuing dentistry. During his college years, he juggled two part-time jobs, managed to excel academically, and contributed to a research team. Receiving a 24 on the DAT, he believes that everyone can achieve excellent performance on the DAT with professional guidance and resources, ensuring a greater chance to attend their dream dental school.

Jordan Middleton is a rising D4 at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) and plans to pursue oral and maxillofacial surgery residency upon graduation. He is a Fellow in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, where he specializes in leading programs designed to prepare undergrad students for the dental school application process. He also works closely with the Office of Admissions at HSDM - giving talks to colleges on behalf of HSDM, meeting with interviewees before and after their interview day, etc. One of the biggest projects he collaborated on, Bridge to Dental School, was awarded the 2021 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award by Insight into Diversity Magazine.

Jordan knows what it takes to gain admission to dental school. He received a full-tuition scholarship from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and numerous other scholarship offers from elite dental schools. Jordan hopes to take an active role in his client's paths to dental school and is determined to make "dream schools" a reality for each and every client he serves.

Lea is a dual-degree DDS/Ph.D. student at the University of California, San Francisco. She completed her undergraduate (Biology) and graduate (Biomedical Research) at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, where she is originally from. Lea became enthralled with dentistry and research in her final year of college. While working at a local medical clinic, she realized the vast inaccessibility to dental care within her own community in central Georgia. She is genuinely passionate about leveraging research to broaden access to dental care and prevention mechanisms and currently investigates the interaction of diet and the oral microbiome to discover new means of dental disease prevention that are accessible, affordable, and widely impactful. She entered her training at UCSF in the Fall of 2018.

During this time, Lea has achieved several accolades, including being the winner of School of Dentistry Research and Clinical Excellence Day, the UCSF Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine Pilot Trainee Award Grant, an NIH-funded grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, and the Student Research Fellowship awarded by the American Association of Dental Research. She also holds several first-author publications, including a book chapter. Lea currently works with several pre-dental students who volunteer in her Ph.D. laboratories. She regularly mentors these students on several aspects of dental school applications, ranging from personal statements, recommendations for improvements, and choosing schools and programs. Lea plans to one day become an academician at a research-focused dental school and thus has a strong enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring. She is deeply familiar with the application process as she has gone through this herself and is also involved in dental outreach events at undergraduate institutions.

Naseem is a third-year student at the UCLA School of Dentistry. He is originally from Chino, California, and hopes to pursue a residency in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery after graduation. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, in 2019 with a major in Psychology, Summa cum laude.

While at UCLA, Naseem served as the Apollonian Society Representative,  enjoying connecting with alumni and aiding in keeping the student center the best it can be for him and his fellow classmates. Naseem has also played a large role in the American Student Dental Association, where he served on local and state boards and attended multiple national conferences. In his pursuit of oral surgery, Naseem has taken USMLE CBSE and achieved a score of 98th percentile among dental students.

Naseem is very passionate about helping pre-dents get into dental school. During undergrad, Naseem had a great mentor who led him through the whole process and so he understands how important it is to have someone there to help. Since he got into dental school, Naseem has helped many students get into competitive dental programs across the nation!

Olivia is a student at Harvard School of Dental Medicine, originally from Guilford, Connecticut, and she hopes to pursue a residency in Orthodontics after graduation. She graduated from Northeastern University with a major in Health Science and a minor in Spanish, and her love for the city of Boston has only grown since then.

During her time at HSDM, Olivia has served as a Fellow for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, during which she has thoroughly enjoyed mentoring pre-dental students through the Bridge to Dental School program. In her second year, she was accepted into the ADEA Academic Dental Careers Fellowship Program and also selected as a Scholar in Dental Education, strengthening her desire to pursue teaching in her future career.

Olivia is also passionate about public health, particularly preventive education, and she has been involved in volunteer work through Give Kids a Smile, Special Smiles, and the ACTION pediatric clinic. Olivia enjoys traveling, trying new workout classes, and spending time with friends and family in her spare time.

Through a series of influential experiences, considerable exposure in the clinical setting, and an innate passion for innovating the dental field, Sean has set his long-term goal of becoming a dental clinician attending the University of California, San Francisco’s Advanced Dual-Degree DDS/Ph.D. program and is set to graduate in 2024. As a clinician scientist, his motivation is to develop more efficacious alternative drug and gene therapies that focus on patients who suffer from more advanced forms of periodontal disease and oral cancers. He is particularly interested in better understanding oral microbial-host interactions and how these events lead to the progression of oral cancers and chronic infections by dysregulating cellular and tissue processes at the transcriptional and epigenetic levels.

Sean has published numerous reviews and a book chapter focused on the pathogenesis and treatment of oral cancers within the context of antimicrobial-based therapeutics, gene regulatory networks, and multi-omic analyses. He has also published original basic science articles as first author in established journals such as PLOS pathogens.

Throughout his academic journey, Sean has garnered considerable experience counseling and mentoring students within the pre-health domain. During his time at CSUSB, Sean worked in The Health Professions Advising Center (HPAC) as a pre-health counselor doing personal statement editing, mock interview prep, and numerous presentations reviewing the application process for various professional programs. He was also a founding member of the “Annual Pre-Medical and Pre-Health Conference,” which seeks to prepare underrepresented students who aspire to go into healthcare through workshops, keynote speakers, panel discussions, exhibition fairs, and more. Since starting at UCSF, Sean has sat on the admissions application committees in the graduate division and school of dentistry, interviewed a myriad of pre-dental and graduate applicants, and directly mentored an array of pre-dental students through the Student National Dental Association (SNDA).

As a non-traditional professional and graduate student, Sean is excited to be part of the Inspira team and brings a wealth of knowledge as an admissions counselor and expert.