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(Bruce Bottomley photo)

When you grow up in a small community, you tend to get to know everyone fairly quickly. That was the case for Autumn Penney (DDH’24), who grew up in Churchill Falls, Labrador, which has a population of around 700. As a child and teen, regular dental cleanings were an important part of her life. There was only one dental hygienist there — someone who would play a pivotal role when Penney was considering career options.

"Memorial University in St. John’s was just as far away from home as Dal, and Dal really interested me," says Penney. "I knew I wanted to work in health care, so I took first-year medical sciences courses at Dal as a starting point. When I started looking more closely at Dal’s website, I stumbled across dental hygiene. It wasn’t a career I had ever thought about, and I applied on a whim."

Read the story, which first appeared in Dal News.