Today we’d like to introduce you to Diego Rivas.
Hi Diego, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My full name is Diego Javier Rivas Febres, I’m 26 years old. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela and that’s where my whole family is from. When I turned 1, my family moved to Río de Janeiro, Brasil. I then moved to Houston, TX where I started elementary school. I went to college at St. Edward’s University in Austin where I got my B.S. in biology. Now I’m back in Houston at the University of Texas School of Dentistry where I am currently a third year dental student seeing my own patients and learning so much each day.
I love dentistry because the profession allows me to make a big change in someone’s oral health through the use of my hands, whether it be beautifying their smile or relieving their pain. A career where I can use my hands to make a difference is thrilling. Sometimes we see patients who have trouble eating and sleeping because of the intense pain that came along with their dental problems. As dentists, we have the power to provide a purposeful fix for our patients in that very moment. We are able to take away the pain that may have prevented some individuals from being able to enjoy a meal for months or even years. The gratitude expressed by the patients I serve has been incredible to witness in many different scenarios. My experiences constantly remind me why I wanted to become a dentist in the first place.
I also have a great passion for learning about languages and world cultures. Growing up in the most culturally diverse city in the country (Houston) has helped me understand the fine nuances of interacting with people of diverse cultures and customs. I have continuously refined these skills through my study of languages and immersion in varied global environments. My linguistically diverse background and intellectual curiosity allows for cultural sensitivity in my interactions, allowing me to always serve a diverse and dynamic community. Learning about different countries, their history, their political climate, and their people has been formed by my values for traveling and learning. My heart is always warmed by someone’s excitement as I convey the little knowledge I have of their country in conversation. I was always thrilled to learn from the unique experiences of others and practice greetings in different languages, which has become an enjoyable, and handy, hobby in my travels. In this way, I will be a champion of diversity and a trusted health provider understanding of diverse viewpoints.
In early 2020 I shared my passion for languages with TikTok and it became more successful than I ever could have imagined. Now I am proud to say that I have amassed an amazing community of language lovers on my social media accounts. Hopefully, they also like the other aspects of me, such as my love for dentistry and science and my love for nature and traveling.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been the easiest road. I come from Venezuela which is a country undergoing severe economic, social, and political crisis right now. My whole life I have witnessed the rapid decline of my home country and have had to endure my entire family suffer as they have had to flee for better opportunities. Thankfully I am here in the US and have been able to try to pursue a brighter future for myself. I knew early on in my college career that I wanted to go to dental school. I also knew it was extremely difficult and competitive to get into dental school with most schools having about a 6% acceptance rate. Throughout college, I worked really hard to get in by trying my best to get the best possible grades and getting involved in as much as I could with leadership and volunteering opportunities. It was great because in many instances I put myself out of my comfort zone which allowed me to learn many skills and be more dynamic. Now that I am in dental school I feel very thankful to have made it. But it certainly is not an easy road. There are a lot of stresses that come with dental school. Endless studying and exams as well as labs. Now things are getting better because I am in the student clinics a lot more than I was the first 2 years of school so I get to see my own patients and learn real hands on dentistry. I get to learn so much each day from our wonderful faculty. I have about a year and a half left of school and cannot wait to see what the world has to offer once I am Dr. Diego Rivas.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am kind of unique because I have so many passions and loves. Professionally I am currently a dental student. I will soon become a practicing dentist and have aspirations of opening up my own practice and serving my community. I would love to get into cosmetic dentistry and surgical implant dentistry. It would be a privilege to be a dentist in such a diverse city like Houston. I can speak different languages so that I can communicate with people from all over the place. I plan to have a practice that does family dentistry, cosmetic dentistry, and implant dentistry. But first I will work as an associate for some years before opening up my own business. I also have a deep passion for houseplants, gardening, and nature! I plan to incorporate my love of plant decor into a very lovely dental office covered in plants someday. And of course, I do social media content creation that has to do with languages and language learning. My videos highlight the beauty of different languages or regional dialects and accents. I also talk about interesting things people might of never heard of in different topics such as biology, geography, linguistics, and history. I also do funny skits related to cultural differences between countries.
One of my favorite quotes is “sharing tea with a fascinating stranger, is one of life’s true delights” – Uncle Iroh. I love this quote because it kind of sums up who I am. I love to meet new people from all walks of life and listen to their stories and experiences. I love to see patients from all sorts of different walks of life and learn from them. I also have the privilege to have a very worldly social media community.
How do you think about luck?
I think I have been very lucky! One very lucky thing that happened to me was that I decided to post a TikTok in the early days of the pandemic and it went viral overnight! I woke up the next day with millions of views and never expected that day to turn into an exciting journey of learning all the ins and outs of the social media world. I always had this idea of making a video to show my quirky talent of imitating what languages sound like to non-native speakers but never really got around to it. In the early days of the pandemic we were all quarantined with little to do so I decided to make a TikTok account while school was closed because of COVID. I posted my first TikTok titled: “What English sounds like to non-English speakers” and of course, it went viral. So after that, I thought to myself “well I guess I’ll keep making tiktoks” I started making similar videos but imitating different languages such as Spanish, French, and Vietnamese. Buzzfeed and 9GAG made compilations of my TikToks and articles were written about my videos on Newsweek and Yahoo. I couldn’t believe all of the attention I was getting just because of that first video that went viral. So I started posting a lot more on Instagram as well and now I do collaborations with different brands and get to have an amazing community of followers. I haven’t been as active on social media because school has gotten so busy. But I will certainly get back to more content creation and social media work once I start my 4th year of dental school and get a bit more free time.
Contact Info:
- Email: diegorivas96@gmail.com
- Website: @diegojrivas_ on Instagram
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diegojrivas_/?hl=en
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@diego.j.rivas?lang=en
