Final Blog/Reflection

     Throughout my three weeks at Lake West Dental, I have learned a lot about business, dental hygiene, and myself. The purpose of my mentorship was to help me figure out my future. I am currently undecided as a business major going to Miami University in the fall. I was very unsure of what I wanted to do within business. As a backup plan, I wanted to become a dental hygienist. Lake West Dental gave me the opportunity to learn about both of those subjects.

     I spent one week with each three of my mentors. Week one was spent with Louise Dagg. She is the business manager at Lake West Dental. From my week with her, I learned managing a business is all about keeping everyone and everything organized. Without her management, the business would fall behind quickly and ferociously. I learned a lot about entrepreneurship, business administration, and sales. It was very helpful to me and my future. All of the majors I learned about were interesting to me but none of them really stuck out. My next week was spent with Kathy Loveland. She is the dental hygienist who I mentored with. Even though I am thankful for Mrs. Loveland and her time spent with me, I didn't enjoy dental hygiene. There are five steps to it but it seemed very repetitive to me. My third week was with Nevio Prosen from Prosen Consulting. My goal was to learn about marketing while we created a new website for Lake West Dental. This was my favorite week. I provided valuable insight and my creativity was the most visibly shown. By the end of the week, I saw great changes being added and more online visitors. 

    I tried pushing all of my ideas to all of my mentors. Some of them were used but most of them were rejected. From this, I was able to learn from my mistakes and move on. If I could have done one thing better, I would have taken more photos throughout the week. My slide presentation doesn't have that many photos, especially during my week with Mrs. Dagg.

    One of my favorite experiences during the week was on the first day. I sat in on an insurance provider trying to sell the insurance to us. I was able to see many sales tactics being used. Such as a referral to get 25% off, No monthly fees, and why not try it.

    For rising juniors, I would tell them to do a Hawken Project that can help them make decisions in the future. My most important takeaway is to use your three weeks wisely. Do as much as you can because it will happen quickly. A lot of progress can be made that can be helpful to yourself and the company. I am very thankful to all of my mentors and all of the time they spent with me.