What do you do when you’re an undergraduate honors student and want to pursue the dental school dream you’ve had since the age of 16—but you can’t get into your first choice, Temple Dental? If you can, you take advantage of Kornberg’s Postbaccalaureate Program. It’s 11 months long, intense, structured, and motivating, just what Amar Sharma, ’23, needed to bridge the gap between goal and reality.

Acceptance into Temple’s dental program “was big,” he says.

And success has followed. When he graduated two years ago before moving on to the residency program, Kornberg faculty chose him for an Excellence in Anesthesiology Award. Reflecting on its impact, he says, “It’s always flattering to be awarded, but you still want to work hard and be the best can be.”

Now he’s a second-year resident in oral and maxillofacial surgery and experiencing “a bit of a beautiful journey that’s still ongoing.”

He explains: “When I was a postbaccalaureate student here, I was nervous and anxious about whether I would get into dental school. I was actually shadowing a lot of the students in clinic. Today as a resident, I’ve been able to help some of the students in clinic, guiding them to the best of my abilities.”

Grateful that he’s been able to mentor as well as specialize in the field he really wants, Sharma notes that treating patients under faculty supervision is “also an honor.” In fact, he especially credits his program director, Dr. Pooja Gangwani, and his department chair, Dr. Mehran Hossaini-Zadeh, for “making sure we have a robust education in oral and maxillofacial surgery.”

Remembering his first visit to the campus in 2012 and how he thought “it looked like a place I could spend the next four years,” Sharma’s time at Kornberg beyond his undergraduate years has certainly been an experience he values. “I still have some ways to go,” he says, “but already, I owe Temple Dental a lot for my career.”