NSU CDM Lasting Impressions Spring 2019

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | 23 dentistry—she chose dentistry, in part, from remem- bering her own experience. There was also an order to dentistry that felt familiar. Her mother, a school principal, was “organized,” and “would tell me how to behave and how I should study in elementary school,” explained Taherian, who was a student in her mother’s school. “She was very sweet, but she would tell me, ‘I won’t treat you differently than the other children in the school.’” Yet another influence was the discipline she saw in her father, who was a colonel in the Iranian army. For 13 years, Taherian was a dentist in Iran. After arriving in the United States, when she wasn’t practic- ing dentistry, she said she longed to be back full force in her career. When it was time for her own daughter to apply to dental school, Taherian was eager to help her and was involved in her decision to attend NSU’s CDM. “Mom, it is so nice here,” Derakhshandeh stated when she arrived at the university. “The faculty is so friendly, and everyone takes care of you.” Taherian learned of the International Dental Graduate Program and was accepted in 2015. They chose only seven people that year, and Taherian was one of them. Taherian, who received her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree at Tehran (Iran) University of Medical and Dental Services, would be enrolled in the three-year international program for dental graduates. Obtaining a U.S. dental degree would allow her to acquire a dental license in the United States and practice dentistry in this country. Her daughter was in the four-year program. They both graduated in May 2018. NEWDISCOVERIES Through their studies, mother and daughter said they found their skills complemented each other. “She helped me with the computer stuff and the record keeping, and I helped her with the patient treatments, because she wasn’t as familiar,” Taherian said. “When we studied, she would learn faster,” Derakhshandeh said. “I’d tell her to slow down, and then she would say, ‘Okay. I am going to wait.’ And she would stop and explain something to me.” When they worked together as students in the dental clinic, they ended up assigned to the same team and shared patients. “Patients would come in and find out we were mother and daughter, and they would get really excited about that. They would tell us, ‘We want to be in someone’s hands we can trust,’” Derakhshandeh said. She recalled that patients would even request them. “They would say, ‘We would like to be with the mother and daughter.’” They are both working hard in their respective jobs now, about 100 miles from each other, so they can all soon be together under one roof. “We already know we can work together,” Taherian said. “She’s my role model and my hero,” Derakhshandeh admitted. u “I noticed details about her personality and what a strong woman she is.” —Tara Derakhshandeh Naghmeh Taherian, left, and her daughter Tara Derakhshandeh graduated together.