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Celebrating the Class of 2021: Serban Sirca

By Diane Peters

The DDS class of 2021 has the unique honour of graduating in the second most turbulent year in recent history. While spring 2020 saw dentistry offices closed as dental students were about to graduate, this year the slowly receding pandemic is still impacting dental education, the job market and the world. These resilient new grads have stayed positive and look forward to tackling the next chapter of their careers.

If you had a technical problem at the Faculty of Dentistry over the past four years, you knew who to ask for help. “Word got around that I knew how to fix things,” says Serban Sirca 2T1 who came to the Faculty after completing his bachelor of medical science at Western University.

While at Western, he took a computer science course. That and a welcoming, just-do-it attitude had him helping people set up their new phones, troubleshooting issues with old phones and helping with computer glitches. He’s talked many colleagues through issues with audio and video on Zoom.

“I don’t mind, I like helping people.” In fact, this interest in people drew him to dentistry: he decided during his final years at Western that the profession would suit his interpersonal and scientific skills. 

Photo of Serban Sirca

For Sirca, the pandemic meant a shift in the social side of dental school. Luckily, his fourth-year study group was comprised of many of his close friends, and the group got even closer over the year, connecting in clinic and remotely too. “We found ourselves relying more and more on this little group of 10,” he says.

Sirca also loves the outdoors. The pandemic has impacted his ability to get out as much as he’d like to do things like back woods camping. And while he enjoys downtown Toronto, nature is tough to come by there.

Staying in the city last summer really drove the issue home for him. “It really made me think about where I wanted to steer my life, and where I wanted to be in five or ten years. The whole aspect of nature and being connected to my community was important to me. I felt like I had to make an active step in making sure I could get that.”

Assistant professor Greg Anderson shared with Sirca what it was like to work in Sault Ste. Marie. Following this, assistant professor and director of student life Richard Rayman 7T0, was contacted by Dani Stein 2T0 from Thunder Bay, where her office needed a new associate. Rayman told Sirca about it, suggesting he call her.

“It ticked all of the boxes,” Sirca says. Thunder Bay is a thriving city with many options for nearby, outdoor activities. The clinic was small enough for a new dentist to build relationships with colleagues and patients.

Sirca starts his new job in July and is hoping his girlfriend, a medical student at Queen’s University going into her final year, will be interested in joining him when she’s able. His Toronto-based family is not keen on him being so far away, he admits. “But at the end of the day they know I’m doing what I love and I’ll be happy, so it’s okay.”

Photo: Convocation Hall (Jeff Comber)