When I got accepted for the scholarship program through the military, I was scared
because I never want to shoot anyone.
I never want to hurt anyone.
I hear about the fear of being drafted and relocated to a different country,
and all these things seemed very scary.
At the end of day, I asked myself, "How am I going to pay for school?
And can I serve our country in a certain way?" And the answer was yes and yes.
So I had to push my fears aside and really dive in.
And I really did it just for the money, for the scholarship to pay for it, but at the end of the day,
after my four years, I fell in love with it.
It provided me the opportunity to serve our country, to pay for my school, and
also gave me an opportunity to serve abroad.
Can you give us a three-two-one?
Three, two, one.
Great. I'm Andrew Vo and I am currently a pediatric dentist.
I served in the United States Army for four years to help pay for dental school.
My parents immigrated from Vietnam during the Vietnam War, so we didn't have much growing up.
We were considered lower class.
My mother and her 11 siblings lived in one apartment with one room
and one bathroom.
My mother sacrificed her whole life for her children, coming
from Vietnam to the United States.
Her number one goal is to make sure that her kids are successful.
So for me, seeing my mom struggle every single day, I made it a goal to educate
myself, to make her proud.
We're going to check your teeth, OK? Are you ready for this?
One of the reasons why I became a pediatric dentist is to help those who can't be
helped. And for me to get a kid out of pain or help a family, that
really fulfills my life as a pediatric dentist.
I really just wanted to take care of the kids and do the right thing for them.
One of the things I love [about] being a pediatric dentists is being able to play with the kids and being
a big kid myself, I just want to be who I am and be authentic, and I think
that's very relatable to kids.
Yeah. I know it's hard to decide.
Do you want bubbles?
Bubbles? The range for a pediatric dentist can range from one hundred thousand dollars all the way up
to four hundred thousand dollars per year.
So right now I am around a two hundred thousand dollars range because I work
as an associate for others.
Dental school costs five hundred and fifty thousand dollars on average, for me, that's a lot of money.
I've never even seen that much money in my life.
Seeing that in dental school costs that much money, I had to figure out a way to pay for
school. I had an opportunity to join the United States Army through
their health professional scholarship program called HPSP, where I served four
years after dental school for them to help pay for my school.
Joining the United States Army through their health professional scholarship program, it's a no brainer
because dental school is so expensive for each year served in the Health Professional
Scholarship Program.
They pay a year for school, so I received a three year scholarship, nearly around four hundred thousand
dollars. But that still didn't cover enough expenses for my housing
costs in L.A.
So I had to pull an additional one hundred ten thousand dollars to help pay for school.
After pulling out one hundred and ten thousand dollars from student loans, I paid off around seventy
thousand dollars and I'm currently still paying off loans, even with the scholarship.
I anticipate paying off the rest of my loans in the next year.
I went to USC Dental School because it is truly the best dental school in the nation.
A lot of my friends who graduated from this program are still in
debt, pretty much the same amount because of the interest each year
capitalizing on the original loan.
A lot of dental students who are graduating from school and trying to pay it off aren't really
paying off the principal, they're paying off the interest and it's a struggle because now
being in health care, it's not really how much money are we making.
It's more about how much money are we making to pay off our loans.
So being a part of the United States Army and being a recipient of the scholarship, I'm able
to save more money than my peers because I don't have to be stressed out about how much
I'm making. In order to pay back the student debt and the loan,
I'm able to save more money at a faster pace and buy nicer things and support my
family and really to support my mom.
The first year I was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, and the remaining three
years of service I served at Fort Irwin, California.
Being in the military and having them stationed me Colorado, although
it's super pretty,
I miss a lot of my family members, to be honest, and I think that was the most challenging part because I was never
separated from my siblings and my mom and being spoiled in the best weather
ever in California, I just missed home.
Initially, I joined the military because I wanted for them to pay for my school.
However, after over four years, I've met incredible people, people that sacrificed their
life, and we really do have to step back and realize what we have as civilians
because we say that America is free and you know, it's a free country,
but not really. After my
commitment of four years in the United States Army, I decided that I wanted to be a part of it
still as a civilian.
So I joined the United States Reserve where I served two weeks throughout the year as a
reservist. I will eventually serve 20 years after 20 years I
get a pension in order to use
it in my sleep.
The army showed me resilience, showed me how to be a better leader and
showing me that we're all a family.
So it changed my mindset a lot.
It changed that, you know, I'm not really fighting for myself to survive, but
really like if a war broke out, how am I going to protect my country?
And I'm a dentist, right?
So I'm a dentist, I fix cavities.
I, you know, tried to get rid of the sugar bugs, but being in the army, I
did serve as a dentist for four years, but I served more as a leader, and I think
that's an experience that everyone should want to have.
My fiancée, Marcus and I plan to open our own pediatric dental boutique
office. Marcus and I are both pediatric dentists and we recently got engaged.
So our future plan is to get married in the next year or so,
and having the scholarship really helps us save up money to do that
and also open a dental practice.
Marcus and I want to buy a house for now, and we're able to utilize a VA loan, which is a great
loan because if you live in Orange County, it's so overly saturated
in regards to pricing.
People are paying one hundred to two hundred thousand dollars over asking.
Before I joined the military, I was very nervous about joining because
of "Don't ask, don't tell," and I was very scared of coming out to the military, saying that
I am gay. Now being a part of it, they've only embraced me with love.
They do Pride Month as well in the military, really kind of shining light on "love is
love," and that's incredible because that's what we need each and every single day.