Early the following year, (with the blessings of his Dean, Dr. Ben Pavone) Spain began contacting dental schools across the country to recruit students to attend an organizational meeting for a new dental student association. In the spirit of the Appalachia Project, he decided to focus on students with an interest in extra-curricular public health and community service (at the time, a relatively new area of interest for dental students), rather than traditional student leadership such as class officers and student councils. In the end, he was successful in gaining cooperation from about half of the total dental schools in the country.