Former Global Village Project students have found meaningful careers at Ethnē Dental, a nonprofit clinic that provides care for the refugee and immigrant population of Clarkston.

When patients come through the door at Ethnē Dental in Clarkston, they’re welcomed with a warm smile from front desk coordinator Hasna Salim. Her smile is more than perfunctory politeness. Salim wants to make sure each person feels cared for and comfortable. 

“Before they see a doctor, they see me,” she said. “They might be scared, and I want them to understand there is nothing to worry about because we are going to treat them with respect.”

Ethnē Dental is a nonprofit, faith-based clinic in the heart of Clarkston, where 45% of the population is foreign-born. Part of Ethnē Health, the dental clinic has served more than 150 patients a month since opening in 2023. Most of the patients are under- or uninsured, and many don’t speak English. But that doesn’t matter at Ethnē, where they provide interpreters for 48 languages and dialects. Some of those interpreters are staffers such as Salim, who speaks Burmese.

Ethne was founded by a team of six providers, including Drs. Esther Kim and Eunice Chay — who joined as Chief Dental Officer when the dental clinic launched — and is proud to boast a roster of former GVP students. In addition to Salim, there are dental assistants Glory Shay and Foziya Adem. Another GVP alumna, Aeley Paw, served as dental assistant for several years before leaving in January to have her first child. Paw, Shay and Adem were classmates at GVP. Salim came to the school a year or two behind them.

For Chay, hiring GVP grads was an easy decision. 

“I’m always so impressed when GVP resumes come across my desk. They seem more confident, more assured of what they are doing and why,” she said. 

As a hiring manager, Chay asks every job applicant the same question: How do you handle communication and solve conflicts in a diverse setting? She said GVP applicants always have the same answer: They learned it while at the school. 

“They tell me how they learned to be friends and share a meal with girls who were different from them, how they learned to study together and respect each other’s differences,” Chay said. “Whenever I interview a GVP alum, I know they are going to check that box.”

Chay is the daughter of Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants. She said founding the clinic was “a dream” for her and Kim, who saw the need for oral care in the foreign-born community. In a 2023 article about the clinic, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited a Georgia State University study that found 3 out of 10 people in the Clarkston refugee and immigrant population hadn’t seen a dentist in three years. Among those who had, 7 out of 10 did not complete treatment because of cost, and 9 out of 10 reported nobody spoke their language at the dental office. 

“Our mission is to provide culturally sensitive care,” Chay said, acknowledging that there has been a learning curve. During their first two years, they did not have any Muslim staffers and didn’t fully understand the difficulties Muslim patients face during the month of Ramadan, when most abstain from food and drink during daylight hours. Dehydration and the inability to take oral medication can make a procedure such as tooth extraction excruciating. 

Chay said having Muslims on staff, including Salim and Adem, has helped foster understanding with patients who are worried about breaking their fast. 

“These women have dreams and aspirations. They’ve come so far and want more for their lives. If they move on from here, it would make me so proud. But it would be bittersweet,” she said, holding back her emotions. For now, the women have no plans to leave.