Slashcheva emigrated from Kazakhstan to the United States with her family at age 5. She started kindergarten in Harrisonburg, Va., with no knowledge of English. Thanks to an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher, though, she got off to a good start.

“The ESL teacher engaged in my siblings’ and my lives well beyond the classroom,” Slashcheva says, “equipping us with the skills and motivation to succeed and excel in academics even as immigrant children.”

Ten years later Slashcheva was the valedictorian of her graduating class at Turner Ashby High School. At age 16? Yes, she had just finished her sophomore year, but she had acquired two years’ worth of credits by taking classes on the side at Blue Ridge Community College.

That fall of 2009 she planned to follow her older sister who had earned a at ��ݮ����. “Nursing seemed like an attainable goal for an immigrant child,” she says, “and I was fascinated with science and passionate about serving others.”

But two weeks before starting college, Slashcheva went to a dentist’s office with her father to interpret for him. Dr. Dave Kenee was impressed with her and challenged her to consider a career in dentistry. Within a few weeks, she was shadowing Kenee at his practice and had transitioned into a at EMU.

Slashcheva was in a hurry to get started in her life’s work. It took her only 2½ years to get through EMU, by taking summer classes and applying previous college credits from Blue Ridge. And she was already building her résumé. While at EMU she worked in the university’s , volunteered at , and traveled to Lithuania for three months as part of .

She found time to continue her interest in music by playing flute in and directing the choir at her church, .

Slashcheva looked for a dental school that shared EMU’s emphasis on service. She won a competitive scholarship to dental school from the federal government’s , which pays her entire tuition bill as well as a monthly stipend. She chose Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

So how did Slashcheva spend her time between graduating from EMU in December 2011 and entering VCU in August 2012? Take a break and leisurely prepare for dental school? No, she went on a four-month mission trip under the . She worked in dentistry and oral health in Honduras and Peru. “That developed my fascination for public health,” she says.

At age 19, Slashcheva entered the VCU School of Dentistry, plunging into her studies as well as student clubs and professional organizations. Her growing résumé now includes president of and nearby Medical College of Virginia (now with over 300 student members), director of tEEEth talk Community Education Workshops, founder/president of Special Care Interest Group, student leader of Christian Medical and Dental Association, and graduate teaching assistant for undergraduate students who are about her age.

Some of Slashcheva’s professors question why she is so involved in service programs at a time when she should be focusing on her professional development as a dentist. “But I want to be a Christian who happens to be a dentist—and not the other way around,” she says. “I learned that at EMU.” She also learned to integrate faith and science.

Slashcheva is active at , where she is the music coordinator and a delegate to .

What’s next for the future Slashcheva when she graduates from VCU in 2016? “As a National Health Service Corps dental scholar, I have committed to practicing dentistry in an underserved area for four years at the start of my career,” she says. The commitment can be deferred, however, if she wants to seek specialty training. At this point she is thinking about post-graduate study in dental public health and geriatric dentistry.

A long résumé is not Slashcheva’s goal. But she is determined to surpass boundaries that were considered insurmountable. And she is driven to pursue a life of service that comes from her Christian family upbringing in a disadvantaged immigrant community.

“Early in my immigrant life, I realized that I may never completely assimilate into my surroundings,” says Slashcheva. “So I found it necessary to choose between being inferior or being extraordinary among my peers.”

“They’re pretending a bear is after them right now,” said , director of , laughing while watching four boys pedaling hurriedly away from a pretend foe on their tricycles.

Meanwhile, another boy scoops up loot in a sandbox nearby.

“He prefers to play by himself,” Diener explained. “We let him.”

Later, the group examines two bins full of tomatoes and potatoes that the kids harvested themselves — vegetables that will later make their way into soup the students will help to cook.

“We try to show them the continuity of things, that things are interrelated,” Diener says, adding that students planted corn in the school garden last year, later harvesting, shelling and grinding it into cornmeal to make corn muffins. “We want them to know where things come from, that you can plant a seed in the ground and it can grow. … We want them to make connections and understand processes.”

In addition to her director role, Diener teachs the 4- and 5-year-old class at the Early Learning Center, which has been renting space at the church since the preschool started in 1977. This is Diener’s 21st year with the university’s so-called “laboratory preschool,” meaning students in complete practicums there.

The developmental preschool “allows children to be children, exploring the world, developing in an unhurried way, and learning for the joy of learning,” according to its website.

In practical application, that means the preschool room doesn’t have a computer, for one thing.

“We used to but we took it out because all of these children have computers at home; they have plenty of time to do that,” Diener said. “In here, we want them to experience real objects, hands on things, rather than sitting and looking at a screen.”

It means that the kids are given relatively free reign of the classroom during playtime and told to choose whatever activity suits their respective interests. They can measure and organize objects in the sensory table, climb into a large bathtub to read books, or paint creations on easels, to name a few of the stations available to students’ imaginations in the large classroom.

It means the kids get a healthy dose of nature, art and music daily, with at least 30 minutes of outdoors playtime during every two-and-a-half-hour day.

The program stays developmental despite pressures to “incorporate inappropriate academics,” Diener says.

“There are pressures to push reading and memorization — that kind of rote learning — down into lower and lower grades,” she added. “It’s not even a grade, you know, it’s preschool.”

Hidden Treasure

The preschool has its ups and downs in enrollment, and this fall, it’s down.

Though the 2-year-old class that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays is full, with eight children enrolled and a waiting list, the 3-year-old class that meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays only has seven of its 12 spots filled. The 4-year-old class, which meets every weekday except for Wednesdays, is only half full, with seven out of 14 spots filled.

Many people, upon discovering the center, say they hadn’t heard of it before, Diener says, making the preschool a sort of hidden “treasure,” as she puts it.

Raving Reviews

One parent, Elizabeth Fletchall, is very glad she found out about the Early Learning Center upon moving to Dayton from Roanoke.

She takes two of her three sons — 5-year-old Will and 2-year-old Benjamin — to the preschool. She says she “absolutely” plans to take her youngest to the center when he’s old enough.

“We kind of stumbled into the [Early Learning Center] and were just amazed,” Fletchall said, adding that the preschool’s laboratory status is helpful for the students.

“It certainly teaches the students to be flexible,” she said. “[The EMU students] have different personalities, so each [is] going to bring something different to the classroom. … It also means, as a parent, that the [center] is current on everything, up on the latest in childhood development.”

She says the preschool is “instilling a love of learning” into Will and Benjamin, adding that the teachers also have great communication with the parents.

For EMU students Rachel Richard and Brooke Gonzalez, as well as several other undergraduates, the center is providing a place for practical application of what they learn in the classroom this semester.

“It’s neat to get to see and work with the kids,” said Gonzalez, a 21-year-old senior from Mount Jackson.

“It was an awesome opportunity to get to create my own lesson and actually get to teach it on my own,” said Richard, a 20-year-old junior from Lancaster, Pa. who recently completed a class at the center on leaf shadings and leaf identification. The children picked leaves they liked off of trees around the preschool and took them inside for the lesson.

“Every activity that [the center has] children do, there’s a purpose behind it,” Richard said. “The [classroom] centers have been created with learning in mind.

Students can be learning even as they’re … ‘playing.’”

Courtesy Daily News Record, Oct. 29, 2013

If anyone values opportunity, it’s Lyubov Slashcheva. As a at ��ݮ���� (EMU), taking the Dental Admission Test (DAT) is one of her priorities. Her free moments are spent engrossed in a DAT study guide.

A Russian interpreter for the (HRFC), Slashcheva does not waste a moment. Five schools, including the University of Baltimore, West Virginia University, University of North Carolina, University of Pittsburgh and Virginia Commonwealth University have already received her dental school application. When asked why Virginia Commonwealth appeals to her, the frequenter of the EMU Dean’s List expounded upon her overall campus visit impression. At the school, she said, service is emphasized and envisions that serving others will equip her well for dentistry. In-state tuition and proximity to home also helps, she added.

After she dons EMU’s royal blue gown this December, the visionary plans to travel. She will spend four months in Gracias, Honduras and Mayobamba, Peru with the , serving in two dental clinics. The Luke Society will support her as she educates communities about preventive medicine, stimulates community development and builds community missions with a local pastor. Slashcheva will do this all so local individuals can care for themselves.

With over three years of Spanish under her belt, Slashcheva is slightly nervous for the time away but is optimistic it will be an opportunity for growth. This experience, the forward-thinker hopes, will give hands-on dental experience and a picture of rural dentistry abroad.

Family-rooted worker

In addition to being a highly disciplined student, Slashcheva values her family and church community. When she is not arduously studying for the next exam, serving others or spending time in extra-curricular activities, the youngest of three children relaxes at home with her parents.

She donates her time to the HRFC and other dental clinics in the area while working two jobs. Additionally, Dr. David Kenee, Dr. Steven Gardener and Dr. Stacie Dietz, all in the dentistry field, receive Slashcheva’s helping hands. She also tutors struggling students in organic chemistry and biology and works at .

At her home congregation of First Russian Baptist, Slashcheva co-directs a choir that meets three times a week and attends a weekly youth prayer meeting. “I like a strict schedule,” said Slashcheva who also plays flute in the church band.

After pondering how she spends her free time Slashcheva said she can’t live with free time. “After I graduate, maybe I’ll learn how.”

Slashcheva cherishes the common ground built at the HRFC between medical professionals, clients and volunteers. Others, she hopes, “would value the opportunity that the HRFC presents to do a job willingly while belonging to the larger effort.”

The center is a child-focused, developmentally appropriate preschool program for children ages 2 to 5. The pre-kindergarten program runs September through mid-May each school year. Drop in to experience the environment and talk to the teachers.

The center operates in facilities at Park View Mennonite church north of the campus.

More information on the is available by calling the education department at 540-433-4002.

The event will include a variety of children’s activities, face painting and food.

A suggested minimum donation is $5 per family to help support the Early Learning Center based at Park View Mennonite Church. The ELC offers three programs serving more than 35 community children from two to five years of age. The accredited program marked its 25th anniversary the fall of 2005.

For more information, call Joyce Peachey Lind at 433-4002 or 476-1407.

Customers can present a voucher at the cash register at the time of purchase and a percentage of the net sale will be donated to the EMU ‘s laboratory school. Vouchers will be available at the store.

Special family events during the four-day event include a pajama story time 6:30 p.m. Dec. 15 and a holiday story time and crafts 11 a.m. Dec. 16.

The Early Learning Center, based at Park View Mennonite Church, offers three programs serving more than 35 community children from two to five years of age. The accredited program marked its 25th anniversary the fall of 2005.