GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – ECU dental school and UNC Pembroke signed an early assurance agreement for dental school students.

The agreement creates a pathway linking UNCP’s undergraduate students to the ECU School of Dental Medicine.

The EAA guarantees admission of UNCP students into the ECU School of Dental Medicine’s Doctor of Dental Medicine program upon meeting certain criteria and requirements. Beginning in fall 2024, one of the 52 seats in the dental program will be reserved, three years in advance, for UNCP students entering as first-year students.

Students – both current and former – spoke at the signing about the significance of the partnership.

“Both institutions have shaped me and allowed this opportunity. And again, I saw patients this morning. Thanks to you I was able to do that. And thanks to this, There’s a pathway for more people to have the same experience, the same opportunities, the same growth. And I pray that I can be a part of it,” said dental school alumnus, Dr. Rudy Oxendine.

Current student, Maya Grimes added saying, “I do feel like UNC Pembroke did adequately prepare me or the rigor of dental school as a D1 we have exams every single week every Wednesday we had 35 this year and I was blessed to have passed all of them so I definitely think that UNCP prepared me very well.”

The dean for the school of dental medicine says – so far – students and alumni come from 87 of the 100 counties in the state.