Michal Alchikh was inspired to study dentistry in his native Syria after witnessing a dentist comfort his disabled brother during treatment. That experience “changed my perception of what dentistry could be,” he says. He studied in Damascus – until a shelling outside shook the building where he was taking exams. “We heard people screaming,” he says. “The supervisor told us to run home, but we couldn’t see all the dust.”
Courtesy of Michal Alchikh
Alchikh is studying to be a dentist anesthetist. “I always dreamed“ He says, “transfer to UCLA.“
He hid under a staircase until he could finally go home. When he got there, his parents urged him to leave the country. But not wanting to stop school so close to finishing, he stayed. Finally, as the war worsened, he went to the U.S. Because he had not yet worked on patients, he was unable to enroll in UCLA’s two-year program for internationally educated students. Deciding she wanted a holistic dental education, she followed the traditional four-year dental program.
In Venezuela, Eliane Ortiz Puche followed her favorite cousin to dental school. But after her mother was held at gunpoint amid political protests, the family fled to Southern California, prompting Ortiz Puche to drop out of school and join them.
“But I was in my fourth year of dental school and I couldn’t quit,” he says. He remained for several more years. The school was closed for a year and a half due to instability. what should have been a five-year program turned into seven. After graduating, Ortiz Puche stayed in Venezuela for four more months, fighting for human rights as she dealt with the corrupt bureaucracy to renew her passport. “There was always something going on — protests, looting, chaos,” he says. During that time, thousands of young people were killed.
Then, during a protest, Ortiz Puche was tear-gassed, causing her to fall to the ground. Someone carried her to a Red Cross vehicle. He knew he had to leave.
Reuniting with her family in Los Angeles, Ortiz Puche found work as a babysitter, cashier and waitress. He then took a job as a dental assistant to a UCLA graduate oral surgeon in Beverly Hills. “She was a light in my life and supported everything I needed to do to get into dental school,” says Ortiz Puche.
Courtesy of Eliane Ortiz Puche
Ortiz Puche (center) with her family. Completing her studies, she‘secured an oral surgery license in Detroit.
When the US didn’t recognize her Venezuelan degree, she joined UCLA’s two-year program for internationally trained dentists. “Everywhere I turned,” he says, “all the people I worked for who had high-quality training and high standards in dentistry were from UCLA.” She is now approaching her second graduation from dental school and has secured an oral surgery degree in Detroit.
For many years, students displaced from their homelands have found refuge at UCLA, a place to start over. This is especially true at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Some of the school’s most prominent graduates were Vietnamese shipowners in the 1980s. Another escaped the Iranian revolution. another left Aleppo.
Alchikh, now in his third year, plans to become a dental anesthesiologist, specializing in patients with dental phobia. “I always dreamed of going to UCLA,” she says. “Even faculty members who come from backgrounds like mine find doors open for them here.
“At UCLA, I had so many opportunities to excel and improve on what I already had,” he continues, summing up the experience of many displaced people. “UCLA helped me become who I am.”
Read more from UCLA MagazineSummer 2024 issue.
