CANBY — The Canby campus of Minnesota West Community and Technical College received a $94,747 grant for the Dental Assistant Program from the 2025 Clinical Dental Education Innovations Grant program.

“(The Dental Assistant Program) is a very long standing program here, and I think renovating our dental clinic just really solidifies that we’re here to stay,” Dental Assistant Program Director Sara Abrahamson said. “We’re here to provide quality dental professionals to Southwest Minnesota and continue our partnerships with them.”

The grant will work to increase dental access across several communities and promote dental education and training programs for students through new renovations, updating spaces and getting new, updated equipment.

“The Dental Assistant Program needs renovations to provide a more conducive learning environment,” Interim Dean of Allied Health Services Megan Gorres said. “The project objective is to renovate and enhance the current clinical or lab. Renovations would allow for the addition of state of the art equipment. As of right now, that would cover the Dental Assistant Program, and we’re exploring the future possibility of the addition of a dental hygiene program as well.”

The dental assistant program prepares students for a variety of oral healthcare careers including dentists, hygienists, non-clinical practice management assistants and more.

Renovations are currently planned to begin in the summer of 2025, and will be completed by next fall semester.

“I think that by having an up-to-date clinic, we’ll be providing an experience very similar to what students are seeing when they’re going out into industry, and into the real world,” Abrahamson said. “It’s going to be a space that we’re all very proud of.”

Students in the dental assistant program partake in a range of studies like bio-med, general studies, dental sciences and clinicals along with other courses and practices that are allowed by the State of Minnesota to continue furthering experience and education.

The program also does a lot of work with local partners, in sending students to offices to learn from, or bringing in professionals to the classrooms.

“Our students do their internships at local dental offices, and our dentists come into our clinics and they supervise on our clinical days,” Abrahamson said. “We have pretty strong partnerships with area dental offices.”

The program also prepares students for entering the workforce when nearing graduation, with continuing support and partnerships through community efforts.

“The dental community contracts with the college to provide individual preceptorship for all students during their last semester training,” Gorres said. “That experience is proven to be an excellent learning experience for students. Those clinical hours provide essential education for our students while increasing the number of services provided to the community at large.”

The grant is administered by the Office of Rural Health and Primary Care under the Minnesota Department of Health, and was originally sought out by Abrahamson and pursued by Jackie Otkin, the Dean of Allied Health Services.

“She initially started this grant process,” Gorres said. “We started to explore the space and what could potentially be done with the space to not only meet the needs of our current students, but potentially those that we would encounter in the future, and also the needs of our community stakeholders.”

The Dental Assistant Program currently has 16 students, but will now have a path to hold up to 40 students. There also was an additional site for the program built in Luverne about five years ago, according to Gorres, which also supports the increased demand for dental assistance in the area.

Minnesota West Community and Technical College offers over 60 technical career and liberal arts majors across its five campuses in Canby, Jackson, Granite Falls, Worthington and Pipestone.

“We’re thankful for the Minnesota Department of Health and their partnerships with us in addressing the needs of communities,” Abrahamson said.