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During Heather
Mendoza’s senior year at Southeast High School, a typical day
was anything but sedentary.
“I would take classes at the high school from about 8:00 – 10:00
a.m., leave for work as a receptionist for Estes and Williams
CPAs, then go to a dentistry internship at Dr. Billy Barton’s
office, go back to my receptionist’s job, and then back to
Southeast for marching band practice,” says Mendoza, age 19.
“Then I would go home, but on the days that I didn’t have band
practice, I would usually work at a shoe department at the mall
until closing.”
In addition to school and work responsibilities, Mendoza also
led an active social life, and was selected to be on the
Homecoming Court during her freshman year and on the Prom Court
during her senior year. In band, she served as both the
librarian and as an assistant section leader for the clarinet
section.
Mendoza’s balancing act has continued at Dalton State as well,
as she juggles a full load of courses and four part-time jobs,
including one as a Student Orientation Ambassador and
Recruitment (SOAR) leader and one as a Mary Kay cosmetics
consultant.
“Sometimes I wonder if that’s why Donna Lee Davis, Assistant
Director of Student Activities, put me in charge of the
‘balancing sessions’ during orientation,” says Mendoza. “She
knew with all these jobs and a full course load that I knew a
lot about the importance of setting priorities and not
procrastinating.”
Since she was 16, the Dalton native has held at least two jobs
at all times, and now, as a college freshman, she is responsible
for all of her bills: cell phone, car payment, car insurance,
internet, and credit cards. |
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“I pay for everything by myself, from money I make through
working,” says Mendoza, who sees her financial independence as a
true gift.
“Being solely responsible for my finances is making me
stronger,” she insists. “I am learning that you need to pay
bills first, and pay for fun later. It’s a learning experience
that is going to help me in the long run.”
Her “long run” plan is to jump through all the educational hoops
necessary to become not only a dentist, but one who specializes
in pediatric dentistry. The biology major plans to earn either a
Bachelor of Science in Biology degree at Dalton State, or to
complete a pre-dentistry four-year program through a University
System of Georgia (USG) institution.
Then, she hopes to attend Medical College of Georgia’s dentistry
program for three years, followed by the additional training to
become a pediatric dentist.
“I’ve always been interested in working in a health profession,”
she admits. “So when I was at Southeast, I also took general
health care classes through the Whitfield Career Academy during
my sophomore and senior years.”
Mendoza recalls that her desire to become a dentist sprang from
her desire to help others, her interest in health care, and a
random comment made to her when she was about nine years old.
“I was jumping on a trampoline with some other kids, and one of
them asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said that I
didn’t know.
“One of the kids said you need to do something that you really
like. I said ‘I like my teeth,’” she recalls. “She said, ‘Then
you should become a dentist.’”
From that day on, Mendoza knew that a career in dentistry would
be her life goal.
During her senior year of high school, she joined the Skills USA
Club at the Career Academy and traveled with other classmates to
Atlanta for a Skills USA statewide competition, competing in the
dental skills category.
It was there that she met Darryl Byrd, a student from
Douglassville who placed third in the event. The two have formed
a close friendship and hope to launch a joint dental practice
sometime in the future.
“Darryl plans to become an orthodontist, and I plan to become a
pediatric dentist, so we’d like to have a practice where
children can start out seeing me, and then be treated by him
when they begin to need braces.”
In the meanwhile, she is enjoying her life at Dalton State, and
is having a blast being a SOAR leader.
During orientation sessions, in addition to talking about
balancing school, work, and fun, Mendoza joins Director of
Recreation Garrett Burgner in showing off the Fitness Center and
swimming pool, and she and Micah Norton introduce students to
the web portal, which is their means to register for classes, to
check “holds,” and to communicate internally with faculty and
fellow students.
“I love the fact that I meet so many new people each time we do
an orientation,” says Mendoza, who will have helped lead more
than 20 orientation sessions by summer’s end. “It’s a wonderful
experience that I will never forget.”
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