In today’s society, underserved communities are ignored just as much as they are helped. However, Charter alumna Chonnalin Sumonthee decided to fight for one privilege for the underprivileged: dental care. Taking a chance to shine a light on the difference between the two communities, a memorable mark is already left as she embarks on this long journey of creating equality.
While volunteering at a clinic, a heartfelt conversation changed everything. “I talked to this one patient–she had lost a lot of teeth when she was younger. She said she missed the masks during COVID-19 because she could hide behind them. She wanted to finally be able to talk to someone and not have to hide behind a mask,” Chonnalin mentioned endearingly. Her deep love for dentistry grew due to the vulnerability between patients and dentists.
While she didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do—possibly health—she always knew she just wanted to be with people. “I looked into Psychology/Psychiatry, but I realized how heavy it could be,” Sumonthee shares. She looked at medicine, but it wasn’t what her heart ultimately set on.
After graduating from the University of Florida, the part of figuring out what she truly wanted to do finally came.
Sumonthee still felt something was missing. She recalled a time when she realized “how many things people want to fix about themselves because it is the way they present themselves to the world,” she said, “and after a procedure, [patients] would talk about how happy and confident they are and it made me want to be a part of that journey with other people.” Dentistry allows her to express what she is best at–science and art.
Sumonthee discussed the differences she noticed in how less fortunate people are treated. “I want to help underserved people because so many people that are in need are often overlooked. I feel grateful hearing people say how I’ve made a difference about them because of the treatment,” Sumonthee continues to speak passionately on what she dearly loves, “When I see clinics and see the number of people that are there, it makes me see [how big] the number of dentists that aren’t there to help the people.”
Sumonthee also notices the cultural aspect when it comes to treating underserved non-natives. “Many patients I’ve seen are immigrants. Many doctors can’t communicate with them, so I want to use the Spanish-speaking skills I have gained to help them.”
As her years of being on the last leg of her dental journey arrive, Sumonthee refers to her time at dental school and how it is going. “I need the community. I can’t do it alone. There are a lot of lectures where we get a lot of information at once, so it is hard.”
In the future, Sumonthee hopes to work in non-profit clinics or public health. With the journey that she has been on, she reflects, “People would doubt me on my dreams of becoming a dentist. There is a bad rap that people hear about health students being so competitive, but all the people I met in my pre-dental club were so nice and helpful.” But she lives by “If you have that spark you can’t hold out on it.”
As a “Charter starter” and graduating from PPCHS in 2019, Sumonthee reminisces about some of the special people at Charter, like “Mr. Bayer, Mrs. Invernizzi, Ms. Sunshine Phelps, Mrs. Santiago, and Mrs. Ciafre” and on her times at Charter doing “dance, volleyball, and volunteering with Mr. Garcia.” Volunteering throughout middle and high school in the Kevin Garcia Foundation with Mr. Garcia, Chonnalin helped with toy drives and wrote a book with the foundation during her Junior and Senior years. She understood she “started loving the foundation with what they were doing, and it made me want to do more.”
Chonnalin realized she found her passion at Charter. “I felt a sense of belonging.”
