Class of 2000 celebrates 25 years with scholarship giving campaign focused on community

Pictured: Ryan Anderson and Mark Bachman, DDS '00, Match sponsors

In honor of their 25-year reunion, the DDS Class of 2000 has come together to support student scholarships, celebrating generations of oral health practitioners past, present and future.

When Mark Bachman, DDS ’00, looks back on his dental school experience, he does so with joy and nostalgia. “Although certainly very challenging at times, I have many fond memories of the collaborative and supportive learning environment we enjoyed at the School of Dentistry,” he recalled. “I was able to forge friendships with classmates during that experience, and they remain some of my  closest friends to this day. We often discuss and collaborate on particularly challenging cases.” 

Today, Bachman is a dentist at Oxboro Dental Care, where he joined his mother and stepfather after receiving his DDS and remains now as the solo practitioner. He decided to host a class reunion for his classmates during this year’s Alumni Weekend, gathering those from near and far. 

“Class reunions are great opportunities to strengthen relationships among classmates,” he said. “The School of Dentistry does a great job reaching out to its alumni and creating engaging environments where alumni can gather and discuss life and career aspects post-graduation.” 

But getting back together wasn’t enough for Bachman and his classmates—they felt the need to do something to support current students. Bachman and his classmates came together to pledge a $6,000 match to this year’s Give to the Max Day funds raised for student scholarships. 

An annual day of giving throughout Minnesota, Give to the Max Day celebrates generosity throughout the state. Gifts provided to the School of Dentistry will support the Dental School Scholarships fund, providing support to recruit and retain the state’s best and brightest students, alleviate student debt to allow flexibility in post-graduation plans and encourage academic excellence. 

“We hope that creating this match fund will help our fellow alumni realize the importance of this effort and choose to support the school in this manner,” Bachman said. 

Supporting scholarships isn’t new for Bachman—and he hopes his classmates and those across generations can take this opportunity to see the value in joining him. “When I first started designating my gift to the Scholarship Fund, I did so because School of Dentistry leadership identified that the cost of attending dental school had become a real issue in being able to recruit the best candidates,” he explained. “The Scholarship Fund seeks to provide a way to help remove some of those impediments and get the best students to choose the School of Dentistry.” 

Bachman is excited to see what donors  can do, and how much of an impact he and his fellow alumni can make—because when students excel, so does the school, and so do its alumni.

“Maintaining strong relationships with other alumni helps us all in crafting a great sense of community and fostering engagement with our alma mater,” he said. “Supporting our institution via charitable giving helps the school maintain irs position as one of the top dental schools in the country, and it makes our degree and training more valuable over the course of our careers.” 

Learn more and join the match at z.umn.edu/dentgtmd.