Manual dexterity skills flow through art to the medical fields

A new certificate program in the Lamar Dodd School of Art confirms a long-held connection: just as a jeweler peers through a magnifying glass to set a gem, a dentist wears a pair of loupes and wields a mouth mirror to check for tartar. Over the spring semester, pre-dental students at the University of Georgia have become quick learners of the art of working with their hands thanks to a novel partnership between the UGA Pre-Professional Advising Office and the Lamar Dodd School of Art.

The new semesterlong Manual Dexterity Through Art non-credit certificate program offers a cohort of 14 undergraduate students a chance to practice refined control and hand-eye coordination in the creative settings and varied facilities of the university’s ceramics, jewelry and metalwork, and printmaking and book arts programs spread throughout East and North Campus.

This semester the program is taught by Leah Mazza, instructor in jewelry and metalwork, and MFA candidates Kayla Hall, printmaking, and Jordan Winiski, ceramics. It launched this spring, with funding provided to the university by a dentist who wanted UGA students to gain a competitive advantage in applying for dental school. Lise Kalla, advisor in the Pre-Professional Advising Office for UGA’s pre-dentist and optometry students, confirms this edge.

“We have developed several certificate programs with campus partners to enhance students’ applications to professional school,” said Kalla. “Recognizing that the preparation for dental school has a unique component in practicing manual dexterity skills, we approached the Lamar Dodd School of Art to collaborate.”

To test the concept, the advising office conferred with dental schools and received enthusiastic confirmation that developing manual dexterity would benefit the students.

Great new program codifying these mutually beneficial skills that translate across careers. Arts AND Sciences together – the strongest configuration.

Image: UGA jewelry and metalwork instructor Leah Mazza, center, shows students how to glue a stencil to a piece of copper to be cut out for a jewelry piece. (Photo by Peter Frey/UGA)