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CHANGE FOR GOOD
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Change for Good is a Benco Family Foundation initiative to raise scholarship funds for the Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman Endowment, the first dental school scholarship offered through the United Negro College Fund, in partnership with the Dental Trade Alliance Foundation, to help end underrepresentation of Black, Native, Indigenous and LatinX communities in dentistry.

Customers can donate by rounding up an order to the next dollar and the Benco Family Foundation will match the gift and donate the full sum to the Endowment.

Named for the first professionally trained black dentist in the U.S., Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman, a child of slaves, entered Harvard Dental School in 1869, just four years after the Civil War ended. Freeman apprenticed with Dr. Henry Bliss Noble, a local white dentist, who encouraged and helped Freeman gain entrance to Harvard. After graduating, he returned home to practice and mentor other Black youth interested in dentistry.

Like Dr. Freeman, dentists generally return to serve their communities… not only as oral health professionals, but as role models for future dentists. That’s why the need for underrepresented minorities in dentistry matters. That’s why the Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman scholarship matters…UNCF’S mission: “UNCF envisions a nation where all Americans have equal access to a college education that prepares them for rich intellectual lives, competitive and fulfilling careers, engaged citizenship and service to our nation.” You can visit this website by clicking here to learn more about UNCF.

Dental Trade Alliance Foundation’s mission is to increase access to and utilization of oral health care by broadening literacy of oral health’s impact on overall health through innovative grants for pilot projects and dental school scholarships.

The Change for Good Program is a Benco Family Foundation initiative to raise scholarship funds for minority students to attend dental school. Customers can donate to dental school scholarships for underrepresented minority students by rounding up an order to the next dollar. The Benco Family Foundation will match the gift.