Guilderland Teens Apprentice with Orthodontist

Dr. Sergey Berenshteyn was 10 when his parents fled Ukraine for Queens 25 years ago. The Soviet Union had just splintered into newly independent republics, including Ukraine. His mother had been a dentist, but in the 1990s, Soviet dentistry was far behind American technologically.

“Russian dentists didn’t use X-rays to identify bad teeth; they just looked inside the patient’s mouth so my mom had to catch up in school,” Berenshteyn said. So, his middle-aged mother studied three years in New York University’s College of Dentistry, while learning English, before she could open her practice in Troy.

“My dad learned English while he studied to be a computer programmer,” the son recalled, and added with a laugh. “They still sound like villains in a James Bond movie because of they never lost Russian accents. But I’m so proud of what they accomplished.”

Berenshteyn followed his mom’s footsteps after graduating from Guilderland High School by becoming an orthodontist with practices in Latham, Albany and Clifton Park called Adirondack Orthodontics. He recently recognized his parents’ tenacity and hustle in two teenagers, both Guilderland High School students, both patients of his. And both are the children of immigrants. When they told Berenshteyn they wanted to learn to be orthodontists, he created paid apprenticeships for each of them.

“My apprentice last year was a young woman whose parents immigrated to Guilderland from the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan,” Berenshteyn said. So there was a plan in place this year when another student, Joey Hayak, asked job shadowing and ended up with a fulltime summer job.

Hayak, 17, a rising senior at Guilderland High School, was born in America to a father who emigrated from Lebanon to the U.S. Now, Hayak he’s apprenticing with is doctor, the second teenage child of immigrants to do so in two years.

“Because he’s not a certified dental assistant, Joey can’t directly work on patients but he can fill out records, get patients to the right offices, gather supplies and take X-rays,” Berenshteyn said.

Hayak’s father met his mom, who is Lebanese-American and whose family lives in Troy, when she was visiting relatives in Beirut.

They married there in 2001, a year after the end of the South Lebanon Conflict, 15 years of grueling guerrilla war pitting the Israel-backed Christian militias against Iran-backed Hezbollah. Beirut residents finally could dream of returning their city to its prewar beauty and sophistication that earned Beirut the nickname “Paris of the Middle East.”

Hayak’s parents’ families were Lebanese Christian and loved the sense of community in Beirut.

“They would say if you have a problem, everyone in the community shows up to help you solve it,” Hayak said, smiling. “But they talked about America for a long time and how great it would be to build their lives and raise their children in such an exciting, friendly country.”

The came to America and settled in Guilderland in 2001.

Hayak’s mother is a nurse and his father a construction contractor. Hayak enjoyed studying science and began researching fields for possible future careers.

“My father can fix anything that goes wrong with our house,” Hayak said admiringly. “He learned millions of facts about aluminum and glass from throwing his energy and focus into the job. And I thought maybe I can do the same thing and find a job where I can get practical experience in a future career.”

He appreciated Berenshteyn’s soothing approach to patients and the way he had arranged his office to function. Berenshteyn has a row of stations in one room where orthodontists can work on children’s braces. The kids’ parents can sit in the same room for emotional support. Hayak was also intrigued by the technology that Berenshteyn used, like scanning the patient’s teeth to make an imprint rather than using a mold.

That’s why Hayak wanted to work with his doctor.

Berenshteyn never thought of limiting summer apprenticeships to immigrants’ children. But he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence both apprentices so far happened to be first generation Americans.

“Immigrants learn fast that they need to be advocates for themselves,” Berenshteyn said. “They learn early that no one is going to lead you to water. You have to find your own path to it. And if  you’re an immigrant’s child, you can learn quickly to be that proactive yourself.”