ASDA Annual session: the d1 experience

Question: What do you get when you take 30 Boston University Dental Students, over 500 Dental and Predental Students from other school across the United States, and 103 inches of snow? Answer: a pretty awesome ASDA Annual Session. ASDA Annual Session took place at the Westin, Waterfront, Boston, MA February 18th- 21st, 2015; it was certainly a fun and eventful week for all.
Annual Session is all about preparing for next year while celebrating the achievement of the past year. “The Best Week Ever” kicked off on Wednesday night with a welcome address and reception given by Dean Jeffery H. Hutter. Dean Hutter welcomed all and encouraged visitors to enjoy the historic snow totals. On Thursday morning we learned about “The Three A’s of Awesome” with Neil Pasricha. Neil, our keynote speaker, took us on an emotional journey through his personal experience explaining how he overcame much heartbreak and became an award winning blogger and acclaimed author. He attributes much of his success and ability to overcome challenges to these three traits: Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity. I highly suggest checking out his work!
A main part of Annual Session is electing our officials. As part of this process each candidate had to give prepared speeches to the entire conference attendance, and impromptu district caucuses. ASDA is broken up into eleven districts; Boston University is part of District 1. District 1 is notorious for being the toughest district caucus out of the bunch. After ample training we put the candidates through tough questioning in an intense environment and were able to hold up our “tough guy” image. After caucus we chose our candidates based on their performance. We met back together as a delegation to view the results of our elections as well as to vote on the resolutions for next year. All elections and delegations went extremely well. I cannot wait to see the success we have in the coming year.
There were a couple breakout sessions throughout the week addressing issues with patient’s perceptions, how to enhance our ASDA chapter, and how to be a rock star dental student. I personally focused on social media and how it effects our patient’s decisions, how to enhance advocacy in our chapter, and how to be successful in the clinic. 
In addition to the elections and breakout sessions we had a chance to celebrate the achievements of the past year. On Thursday night we walked the red carpet at the “Gold Crown Awards.” Schools from all over were recognized with Gold Crown Awards. The biggest award of the night, “Ideal Chapter” was taken home by UCLA. The conference was closed in grand fashion on Saturday night with the superhero themed “Presidents Gala.” In order to accommodate our group of thirty we decided to roll in as the CareBears with dental themed tummy power. We were the hit of the Gala with powers ranging from the “High Speed Hand Piece CareBear” to the “Cusp of Careabeary CareBear.”
Between learning about the Three A’s of Awesome, walking the Gold Crown red carpet, gracing the Presidents Gala with our tummy power, and welcoming everyone to our snowy city ASDA Annual Session proved to be truly #ASDAwesome and the #bestweekever. 


Keep an eye out for our Annual Session lunch 'n learn and if you want to know how you can attend the next ASDA conference, leave a comment below or contact us at asda@bu.edu.

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Amanda Alon, DMD 2018
aalon711@bu.edu