I am Su-san Perez-Tenas and I want to be an orthodontist when I get older. My interests are both social and business. I plan on going to school in Washington at WSU first and then I want to go to the University of Washington. Work will fit into the life that I want to create because I want a job that is high paying but I still leaves time to spend with my family. Eventually I will be my own boss by opening up my own place. I want to make sure that I have security and can take care of my family. My family will always be my first priority and then my job. The reason I chose this occupation is because it has always appealed to me. I don’t know why but it just has.

To be an orthodontist, I will almost always work as a part of a larger work group or team and I will have a high level of social contact. The future prospects for orthodontists are good. To prepare for this the courses I plan to take in high school are physiology, chemistry, computer applications, and vocational foods my junior year. My senior year, I plan on taking Chemistry II, physical science, stats, and accounting. The post-secondary training that I would need include at least two years of college. I would most likely need four years to complete dental school, and after I graduate from dental school, I plan on going to a postgraduate training program which will prepare me to be an orthodontist. This training could take anywhere from two to four years.

Two schools that I am thinking about going to would be WSU or the University of Washington. Entry requirements for both schools are a high school diploma or a GED, four years of English, three years of math, two years of science, two years of a foreign language, three years of a social science, one year of an art, and the ACT with writing test, or the SAT.  The tuition cost for WSU is $15,018 for out of state students, but since I’m a tribal member, I get to pay the in-state tuition which is $6,010. The tuition for the University of Washington is $21,286 for out of state students but since I’m an tribal member, I get to pay the in-state tuition which is $5,988. In Montana, the average pay per year is about $83,040 or about $40.00 an hour. But in the United States as a whole, the average pay is more than $145,000 a year or more than $70.00 an hour.

Doing this SAILS unit has helped me to learn more about being an orthodontist. Now I know that in order for me to be an orthodontist I will have to be really motivated and go to school for a long time. I also learned that I would need to be interested in math and science because I will be using that a lot in my career. I think that being an orthodontist will be a good career for me because I am good with people and with working as a team and I will be very committed. Now I am thinking that being an orthodontist isn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I still would like to become one.