热点大瓜

The story of when, how and why UB undergraduate Emaan Sohail realized she wanted to be a dentist is painfully personal and simultaneously altruistic. She was 16 when she narrowly missed the cutoff for Medicaid insurance for orthodontics and faced what she saw as the facts.

“I then realized that my crooked teeth would stay crooked,” she says.

Sohail fought back. She saved every paycheck from her 20-hours-a-week Walgreens job to pay for her braces — managing school, extracurriculars and her job in what she calls the “continuing balancing act” she has performed her entire young life.

When she did see an orthodontist, it was a childhood encounter that had a lasting effect. Sohail’s first consultation was with “an eccentric orthodontist” who scolded her on how she “needed to figure out what I was doing with my life.”

“I remember the moment so clearly,” says Sohail, now a rising senior studying biomedical sciences. “By some stroke of luck, it felt that during his lecturing everything fell perfectly into place. I realized that this doctor could offer me, a low-income insecure teenager, something invaluable: confidence.”

Sohail always felt pulled between being a medical doctor or an engineer, the only two ways others told her “to find a place in this world.” Then came dentistry, which she says opened an “entirely new world.”

Sohail admits she is “driven.” “Thinking about my future,” she says, “felt fundamentally built into the way that I am.”

Two talking points to remember so far: Bet the house on Sohail to end up right where she wants: as a respected, accomplished dentist specializing in underserved populations who helps children otherwise intimidated and not aware of what orthodontics can do for them, just the way she was.

“One who thoughtfully balances the clinical realities of patient care, the expectations of clients and most importantly, my empathy for them as people,” Sohail explains.

Personal experiences strengthen that motivation. While working at a pediatric dental office in Rochester, she had to turn away a young Arab girl and her family because her parents couldn’t speak English.

“I saw fear and uncertainty on her face as the hygienist I was working with got up and walked away from her and her family,” recalls Sohail. “In that moment, I saw myself in her: turned away from a system because of circumstances that were out of my control.

“My resolve was further solidified in that moment crystallizing my motivation, allowing me to understand that I can offer so much more than just confidence but also accessibility to people who have similar backgrounds or minoritized status as me,” says Sohail, who is Pakistani. “I realized this was a problem I could help solve.”

Second talking point: This near obsession — ask her about how she called just about every dentist in Rochester her freshman year at UB, asking for the chance to prove she could be an “amazing addition” to their office — is just part of her footprint.

Ready for a partial list of other activities and directions Sohail has completed with honors?

As a sophomore, she expanded her interest in policy research in the Honors Think Tank. She and two other students wrote a 45-page research paper on the case for physician-assisted suicide. She has presented research at the Student Showcase that’s part of UB’s Celebration of Student Academic Excellence, as well as at research events in the Honors College.

Sohail is also a social media volunteer for Conversations to Remember, a non-profit/remote organization that connects isolated senior citizens with student volunteers for weekly virtual visits. It feeds two of her passions: social media marketing and helping others.

She volunteers at the Seneca Street Community Development Center, helping kids with homework, supervising playtime and helping serve dinner.

She recently founded an Honors Fiction Book Club, intending to create an inviting environment for Honors College students to have open conversations on mutually selected books. A recent guest: Mary Bush, associate professor of restorative dentistry at UB and author of the psychological thriller “A Simple Lie.”

 Sohail conducted research in UB’s Oral Biology Lab working on human bone cells and introducing different scaffolds to hold drugs in bone regeneration. She took part in Destination Dental School, a week-long program that immerses students into UB’s dentistry program and supports applicants to the School of Dental Medicine.

Those phone calls to Rochester dental offices paid off. Sohail is pediatric dental assistant for an office that accepts Medicaid. “I really love working with children and being able to give back in that way because being low-income really opened me up to wanting to give back to those communities,” she says.

She recently was elected president of UB’s Pre-Dental Association. She has mentored and tutored students throughout her time at the university, through the Honors College and as a TA in evolutionary and cell biology. Sohail recently was accepted into the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa honors society for outstanding academic performance.

Visitors and regulars to the fifth floor of Capen probably would recognize her. Sohail has been a student assistant in the Office of the President since her freshman year. She helps run the front desk reception area, working closely with university and presidential events staff.

Throughout this, she maintains a vibrant and vocal enthusiasm for the UB experience.

“I truly love my experience here at UB,” Sohail says. “I made great friends and found amazing mentors and opportunities here.”

Sohail will tell you the constant in her life is being a mentor, an example to others. She says she loves giving advice, from her volunteer work to being a club officer to leaning on her academic mentors.  

“I think my background being low-income really helped shape the way I approached not only dentistry but my whole life. That has been a recurring theme of my life, wanting to help others through issues I have faced.

“I want my patients to feel like they have someone on their side who is trying to understand their situation.”