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SHREVEPORT – Dr. Jariel Norton had a lot of dreams as a kid growing up in Homer, a rural town in northern Louisiana’s Claiborne Parish.

He knew he wanted to be in the medical field and found his way to dentistry after other paths in medicine were “boring.”

Norton has already achieved a remarkable dentistry career, becoming the youngest African-American male fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry (at age 31) in 2017.

He also had another dream from a young age – to give a commencement speech at a graduation.

Norton will live out that dream May 16 as the commencement speaker of LSUS’s graduations in Brookshire Grocery Arena.

“I’m elated to do this because it’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a young child,” Norton said of being a commencement speaker. “I want to do anything I can to give back to LSUS, because without them, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am now.”

That success includes being the owner of Norton Family Dentistry on Main Street in Homer.

While Homer, the parish seat with a population of 2,610, is fortunate to have three dentists in town, medical professionals can be few and far between in sparsely populated areas.

“People don’t have a lot of different modes of transportation, so they aren’t necessarily able to travel far distances for care,” said Norton, the first African American from Claiborne Parish to become a dentist. “But just because people are more remote, they are just as important as people in Shreveport and other places.

“Homer is less developed socioeconomically, so we’re providing care to people who wouldn’t have access to it. Dental health is just as important as regular physical and mental health. Whatever might be going on in someone’s mouth, like an infection, has a direct path to the heart afterward.”

Norton said patients travel from as far as 90 minutes away from far flung areas of northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas to receive care.

He also works some Fridays at Aspen Dental Care in Shreveport.

While rural locales are lucky to have practicing dentists at all, what they get in Norton is much more than just the Doctor of Dental Surgery a dentist achieves after four years of dental school.

Norton said his eternal love of learning was fostered at LSUS, part of his push to obtain advanced specialty certifications beyond the DDS.

After graduating from Texas A&M/Baylor College of Dentistry in 2013, he completed his advanced education in general dentistry residence in 2014 and is one of a small percentage of general dentists that can perform IV sedation.

Becoming a fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry in just four years, which requires more than 500 hours of training and something only seven percent of dentists nationwide can claim, required him to begin right after completion of dental school.

Norton trained in dental implant placement/restoration, fabrication of sleep apnea devices, and advanced implant placement, bone grafting and sinus lift surgery.

These specialties attract clients from as far as Dallas and Atlanta.

“If LSUS taught me one thing, it was not to give the bare-bones minimum effort to get my grade,” Norton said. “It wasn’t just about making an A, I was around students that wanted to be the best and earn an A+ in every class.

“Whether it’s basketball, baseball or the science department, LSUS didn’t train us to give minimum effort. I wanted to know everything because in these rural areas, I’m the last line of defense.”

LSUS wouldn’t have been on Norton’s radar had it not been for basketball.

The All-State player earned piles of academic scholarships as the 2005 Valedictorian, but LSUS was his best basketball opportunity.

“The basketball program was what made me explore LSUS, and I discovered that they had a great science department,” said Norton, who returns often to campus to speak to classes and youth programs. “I didn’t want to go too far from home, and I loved (then basketball coach Chad McDowell).

“The deciding factor was the amount of aid I received from academics and athletics and the low cost of tuition. You get a great education, and they don’t charge that much, so I loved that.”

Norton was a youngin’ on the 2005-06 basketball team that achieved LSUS’s first No. 1 national ranking in any sport, and he played during one of the best three-year stretches in program history, which included a program-record 31 wins in 2007-08.

Norton said teammates like current LSUS men’s coach Kyle Blankenship set a standard for the younger players.

“That team had a bunch of gym rats, and we’d stay after practice because there was a thirst to be successful and to be the best we could be,” Norton said. “But the same could be said about the student body, too.

“If a class ended at 5 p.m., we might be in there with classmates sometimes until 7 or 8 (p.m.). LSUS instilled that in me. From fraternity life, to academics, to serving on the conduct board to being a library nerd, I took everything that LSUS had to offer.”

Norton said the dynamic of LSUS’s student body – a mixture of traditional students straight from high school and older adult learners – was a positive for him.

“Older students who have wisdom because they lived life can mentor other students who are straight out of high school,” Norton said. “It might be easy to just graduate, but can you handle life and keep your grades up?

“I learned a lot from teammates who were older. It doesn’t matter if you started college late or took time off from your studies, it’s a mindset that you were determined to finish, and you’re here no matter how long it took.”

Norton did single out the late Dr. Tara Williams-Hart as a key faculty member who assisted his journey to dental school.

“She taught me to think outside the box, taught me about perseverance and preparation,” Norton said. “A lot of professors were big on research, and I researched everything I did.

“At first, I was going to go to whatever dental school accepted me, but after thorough research, I found a great dental school right down the road in Dallas. The classes my first years were heavy in the sciences, and I reached out to my LSUS faculty numerous times, and they were always willing to help.”

Upon entering the LSUS Biological Sciences program, medical school seemed to be Norton’s path.

But in dentistry, Norton found an exciting career that offered a blend of financial independence and the free time to enjoy it.

“Medicine was boring to me, I needed something where I’m up and moving and that challenges me daily,” Norton said. “You can never conquer dentistry because things change so quickly.

“I can also write my own ticket in that I can determine how many days I work, which procedures I’ll do. You can make a good living and enjoy your life and family. And LSUS did a great job of preparing me for all that entails.”