Los Angeles, CA – Miluska Sanchez is a 2006 Hispanic Heritage Youth Awardee Gold Medallion recipient for Academic Excellence in the Washington DC region. Her strong commitment to her academic excellence led Miluska to attend the University of Maryland College Park for her undergraduate studies where she went on to major in Neurobiology and Physiology. During her time at the University of Maryland College Park Miluska became a Research Assistant at the UMB Bio Park Center for Vascular and Inflammatory Disease, where she ran a series of Alzheimer’s research.

Miluska also had a strong passion for dentistry as she became the President and Founder for Operations Smile UMD Chapter. After graduating from the University of Maryland College Park in 2010 she got admitted to the University of Maryland School of Dentistry where she would spend the next four years pursuing her Doctorate in Dental Surgery (DDS). In 2014 Miluska was able to accomplish what she considers to be her greatest accomplishment thus far as she completed dental school and obtained her Doctorate in Dental Surgery.

After receiving her Doctorate in Dental Surgery Miluska began practicing as a general dentist which is what her current title is. Her work focuses in working with Baltimore’s inner city underprivileged children. Obtaining her Doctorate did not stop Miluska as she recently in 2016 got admitted in the Maryland’s pediatric residency and in the next upcoming years she plans to start her own dental practice after completing her residency. If there is one advice she could give our young Latino/a leaders pursuing careers in STEM it would be, “to never put obstacles in the way of what you would want to achieve. Obstacles are only placed by yourself and they don’t have to be there if you don’t let them be there. Always persevere.”