The Class of 2026 recognized School of Dental Medicine faculty and staff members last month for their educational impact.
Every year, the graduating class honors faculty and staff members who have had a “significant impact” on their academic experience. The awards highlighted six individuals and were presented during a senior farewell celebration.
Dental School clinical assistant professor Ghina Maliha received the Joseph L. T. Appleton Award, which celebrates a part-time faculty member’s excellence in clinical teaching. In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Maliha called the recognition “the nicest thing” that she “could ever expect.”
Maliha, who works on the clinical floor, said that her main role is to show students “how things are really done” in “the real world” as opposed to a lab environment.
By helping her students “grow,” Maliha explained how she often feels like “their mother, their sister, their confidant.”
Jay Dubin, the recipient of the Earle Bank Hoyt Award, told the DP that he especially appreciated moments when he could show students “how to do things, tell them what a good job they did, or tell them where they need to improve.” Dubin is a 1980 College graduate and received a doctorate degree from the Dental School in 1984.
“It’s the one-on-one with the students that I really enjoy the most,” he said while describing the “amazing transformation” that the Class of 2026 has undergone since arriving at Penn.
Clinical associate professor Joy Bockstein Abt — who received the Robert E. DeRevere Award for “excellence in preclinical teaching” — echoed a similar sentiment.
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Abt told the DP that she holds “a special place for the Class of 2026” due to a Dental School curriculum change that caused class resources to be “spread out over a longer period of time,” making a “significant difference in their ability to master the material.”
Abt received a doctorate degree from the Dental School in 1994.
Dental School professor emeritus Elliot Hersh, who received the Basic Science Award for a record 25th time, also told the DP that part of his job includes alleviating student stress.
“I try to treat students the way that I would like to be treated,” Hersh said.
2021 College and 2026 Dental School graduate Gaurav Gupta — who has worked with Hersh since summer 2019 — described the award as “a testament to how good of a teacher he is and how well he gets the information across.”
“He always takes his time to talk to students if they have problems or questions, or even if he just passes by us in the hallway he always stops and has a conversation or two,” Gupta said.
Artur Kofman — the director of laboratory affairs and Office of Laboratory Affairs supervisor of the Dental School’s clinical labs — and Sam Williams, a member of the Dental School’s instrument management services team, two other award recipients.
