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 ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř. “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.”

“I have an affinity for a mountainous landscape, so I’ll likely not venture too far away from the Appalachians if I can help it,” says Slashcheva, who was born in Kazakhstan but moved with her family to Dayton, Va., when she was five.

As a recipient of a competitive full scholarship from the , Slashcheva has already begun thinking about life after her four-year dental program. In return for funding her dental studies plus a monthly stipend, the NHSC will require Slashcheva to spend four years practicing in a designated “Health Professional Shortage Area” of her choosing.

The administers the NHSC and designates the regions of the country with serious shortages of health professionals where scholarship recipients must work. Slashcheva was notified of her scholarship in August.

“I hope I can find a location where there are other clinicians and dentists who can mentor me,” says Slashcheva, who briefly visited her family and EMU in late September after finishing her first anatomy class.

The workload so far has been difficult but manageable – “likely reflective of the excellent preparation I received at EMU,” she says. She has also attended lectures on operative dentistry and practicing cavity preparations on porcelain teeth.

Her second round of classes will include dental neuroanatomy, infection and immunity, periodontics and dental practice management.

While she intends to spend most of her four-year NHSC service commitment somewhere in Appalachia, Slashcheva also hopes to arrange shorter periods at clinics in remote and underserved communities like Indian reservations or in Alaska.

Though just 19 years old, Slashcheva has already gained hands-on experience as a healthcare worker in underserved areas.

After graduating early from EMU last December, Slashcheva spent four months in Honduras and Peru with the , a medical mission organization that works around the world. In Gracias, Honduras, she observed and assisted a dentist who worked in the region. In Peru, based in the town of Moyabamba, Slashcheva filled a public health role, educating people in the surrounding communities about the importance of oral health.

In areas where good healthcare is difficult or impossible to access, she says, people can develop apathetic attitudes about their health. Education and encouragement, she found, can empower them to change this attitude and to value improving and preserving their health.

“I think that’s almost more important than coming in and extracting an infected tooth,” says Slashcheva.

Since moving to Richmond in May, Slashcheva has been adjusting to city life and a large, secular university.

“But I am eager to take advantage of the many service and leadership opportunities that the large city and institution offer,” she says.