It’s one thing to know what you want. It’s another to be brave and adventurous enough to go for it, halfway around the world from where you were born.
When Viktoriia Hicks (doctor of dental surgery, ’28) was 5 years old, she told her parents that she wanted to be a dentist. Her parents, both medical doctors, encouraged her aspirations. But it would have been hard for them to know, back then, how far their daughter’s childhood dreams might eventually take her.
Born and raised in Luhansk, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Hicks showed her taste for adventure at an early age when she left home for a year to be an exchange student at a high school in the United States. It was the beginning of an enduring love for this country. “It’s so diverse and open here,” she says. “People are approachable and willing to help you.”
Her adventure continued when she was recruited for the volleyball team at the University at Albany - State University of New York, where she played for three years. After earning her MS in biology there, she began working in the United States and reaching some long-term goals. She became a U.S. citizen and decided to take her love of country one step further by enlisting as an officer in the United States Army.
“I’ve always respected people who can sacrifice to fight for something bigger than themselves,” she says. “For me, there’s a dedication to the cause, and also to a set of standards and morals I believe in.” Her current rank is First Lieutenant, and before she attended the University of Minnesota, she was stationed in Grafenwohr, Germany, as part of the 15th Engineer Battalion.
Finding the right discipline
Soon after, Hicks began to seek out a career that would fit with her unique skills. “I shadowed doctors and oncologists, and their work was fascinating, but when I shadowed a dentist, I knew it would be the right career for me,” she says. “Dentistry is the perfect mixture of doing something with your hands and having an opportunity to establish a relationship with patients.”
Finding the right school turned out to involve a bit of coincidence and a lot of Gopher pride. On her Army base, her mentor was alumnus Ross VanDercreek (DDS, ’19), who highly recommended the University of Minnesota’s School of Dentistry.
As she continued to talk with other dentists about which school to attend, the University of Minnesota always came up in conversation. “I’ve never heard a bad word about the program—everybody I talked to and worked with had only good things to say,” she says.
She applied to and was accepted by several different schools, but chose to attend the University of Minnesota. She’ll be in the Army Reserve during the school year, but will still need to serve on active duty during the summers. When she graduates, she’ll be committed to serving as an Army officer for the next four years.
While Hicks is deep into her education, she finds many opportunities to keep that bigger picture in mind. “I had a gross anatomy exam I was studying for when I recently assisted in the clinic,” she says. “I remembered thinking, this is why I’m studying so hard, because that person in the chair needs our help. I’ve always been drawn to serve, and now I will be able to serve patients and country.”
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