Erica Rios

Dental Clinic specialist clerk | HealthPATH mentor

I was born here at Highland Hospital. I’ve been in the Bay Area all my life.

With HEAL, middle school and high school kids come to our department here at Highland in the dental clinic and oral surgery clinic. I try to expose them to doctors, residents, dental assistants, and where I work, which is the front desk, so they can get an experience in every level of the clinic.

Working with HEAL is very rewarding in a way that you get to impact the students’ lives, with just an encouraging word or some advice that you can give them, like, “Don’t give up. Just keep going and you’ll find your path.”

We have a very unique population that we serve here at Highland. We serve the indigent. We have self-pay patients, and patients that have private insurance that opt to come here because of our great service. I think we have a good reputation of taking care of our patients, so we are patient-centered and that’s what we’re here for, to serve our patients and our community.

I think students have great exposure to the health care field and it may spark their interest. I wish I would have had this in high school. Maybe it would have taken me on a different path.

I love working with the students — and when they come back after they’ve graduated, just to say hello, that’s great.