Volume 8 • 2021 • Issue 5

Clinical Practice orAcademia or Both? How a young dentist navigated his education and early career to find a professional perfect fit In 2013, Dr. Nashat Cassim worked with elementary school students who were struggling, teaching math and science as part of the Tutors in the Classroom program in the York Region School Board. He loved his job; he found teaching fulfilling and enjoyable. “I woke up in the morning excited to go to work,” he says. W hen he received his acceptance to dental school at the University of Toronto (U of T), he was elated, but also felt an unexpected panic. “I’d wanted to be a dentist since I was a kid, but I loved the job I already had. It felt like a ‘quarter-life crisis,’” Dr. Cassim says. After some soul searching, he realized that what he found most satisfying about teaching was helping others gain a new perspective or understanding. “That light bulb moment,” he says, “is the real reward for any educator.” And these moments didn’t only happen in elementary school classrooms. In his third year of dental school, Dr. Cassim learned about the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration, which is a capacity-building initiative that brings U of T faculty to teach at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia (p. 33) . He talked to his professor, Dr. Joel Rosenbloom, who heads the faculty of dentistry’s contribution to the initiative. “The goal is to develop institutions within Ethiopia to educate health care practitioners who will remain in Ethiopia to teach the next generation and provide care to their local communities. It has long-lasting impact, and it has education as its focus point,” Dr. Cassim says. “It aligned with my values immensely.” After some soul searching, he realized that what he found most satisfying about teaching was helping others gain a new perspective or understanding. 30 | 2021 | Issue 5