Entry, Creative Corner
Rachael Kearns, North Carolina State University

Liza and Gladys

Untiltled

Adventures through the Anatomy Jungle

Entry, Creative Corner
Sarah Bye & Laura Whitelaw, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

First year explorers assemble,

Scalpels and forceps in hand

Fearing the worst, we tremble

In the jungle of Anatomy land.

Embarking upon our expedition

The atlas ahead towards the dens,

On our way to becoming clinicians,

We travel with our new friends.

Machetes sculpting a trail

Through muscle, tendon and limb.

Uncharted territory, we unveil,

Where nerves and blood vessels swim

Splenius, scalenus, trapezius, “oh, my!”

New muscles feed curiosity.

Descending pecs and lattissimus dorsi.

Insertion at which tuberosity?

Paddling down the vertebral canal,

And along the spinal cord,

It’s all we can do to keep up morale,

Through foramen unexplored.

Drifting ahead to the thorax,

Lumbar region and beyond,

We stumble upon the Lorax,

And ask him to respond.

“How will we pay off our loans?

It seems like a surmountable hurdle.

And master each of the bones,

From the thoracic to pectoral girdle?”

“Dorsal, ventral, cranial, caudal

Forget your mountain of debt

Learn directions on the skeleton model

And you will become a vet.”

In four short years, the dense forest clears

Revealing new responsibility,

We begin our hard-earned veterinary careers

In a world of possibility.

Scholarship opportunity

Here is an available scholarship opportunity for alumni of Chi Omega. Good luck to those who qualify!

The Alumnae Educational Grant program was established in 1997 by the Foundation Board of Trustees in order to meet the needs of alumnae, 24 years of age or older, desiring to further their education through part-time and full-time studies.  Ten $1,000 grants will be awarded in 2014 on the basis of need, merit and individual goals for study at the college, university and vocational or technical school levels.

The Rowdy and Lucky Shain Scholarship is available for Chi Omega collegians or alumnae pursuing degree programs in animal welfare or veterinary medicine. The goal of the Rowdy and Lucky Shain scholarship is to assist the growing core of caring Chi Omegas who are in a position to make positive changes in the humane treatment of animals. There will be two awards given during the 2014 – 2015 academic year; one award for $2,000 and one award for $1,500.
Applications and all required materials must be submitted online by February 3, 2014 for the Alumnae Educational Grant and the Rowdy and Lucky Shain Scholarship.  

The Mary Love Collins Memorial Scholarship is for Chi Omegas attending graduate school on a full time basis during the 2014-2015 academic year. Recipients are selected on the basis of scholarship, aptitude, contributions and service to Chi Omega, the university and the community, and personal and professional goals. We are offering six scholarships of $2260 each.
Applications and all required materials must be submitted online by March 3, 2014 for the Mary Love Collins Memorial Scholarship.
To access the scholarship applications online, please follow the directions below:

1. Click on the link above or go to the Foundation Overview Featured Link on the Chi Omega EveryDay homepage.
2. Select the link for Scholarships and Grants.
3. Open the application you wish to submit.  

 If you have any questions, please contact Angela Reynolds.
 
Thank you!
 
Angela Reynolds
Scholarship and Foundation Ambassador Coordinator
Chi Omega Foundation
3395 Players Club Parkway
Memphis, TN 38125
Phone: 901/748-8637
Fax: 901/748-8655

Easy reference on interest rates

Whether you are starting your first year or counting down the final days until you begin your first real job, it is important to understand the student loans that you have been reliant upon for sustenance for the past several years.  Since there are no longer subsidized loans for graduate students, below is a table explaining the various interest rates for student loans that are dispersed by the government.  The rates highlighted in yellow should be of particular interest during your time in graduate school, although loans from undergraduate may be subject to the rates that are not highlighted.

However, more important than understanding the rate of your loan is understanding a logical way to manage and pay back your student debt following graduation.  It is no longer uncommon to find that student loans may be coming from multiple sources, with varying rates, due dates, and amounts due per month.  For this very reason, the website https://www.tuition.io/ was created. This website is designed as a management tool for those with student loans to provide guidance towards how much money should be going where and when. For those familiar with www.mint.com, this is a very similar concept.  For a brief review of this site, please visit http://mashable.com/2013/08/13/tuitionio/ .

For a more detailed explanation concerning the 10-year treasury note index, please visit http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/products/prod_tnotes_glance.htm.

How to consolidate your student loans:  http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/consolidation

Another Great Tool ""Your Guide to Paying Off Student Loans'"

Second Place - Experiences - Mary Lindahl, University of Illinois

In the first days of August 2013, I packed up my backpack, sleeping bag, stethoscope, and hiking boots, and flew south to Lima with a few butterflies and a lot of excitement and curiosity. I would be meeting up with a group of veterinarians and veterinary students from across the United States and Canada to embark on a two week trip to provide medical care to working mules and horses in rural Peru. We were a part of an equine HSVMA-RAVS trip that travels to this part of Peru annually. Being a fourth year veterinary student, this trip would count as one of my clinical rotations, so I had high hopes for the skills and knowledge I would gain. The group all met with elevated spirits as we got ready to begin our trip, and despite a very long delay in the Lima airport as all of our veterinary supplies were opened and inspected, we finally reached our hostel in Cusco. We met others who would be joining us—vet students and a vet from Peru, and members of a non-profit group who coordinated the logistics of our trip. Following an afternoon of taking inventory and an evening enjoying authentic Andean cuisine, we slept well that night in preparation for our first working day.

For those not familiar with it, Cusco is a large (pop. ~500,000) city that many Machu Pichhu tourists initially fly into. On the outskirts are towns where many mule drivers, or “arrieros” live with their strings of pack mules and horses. On our first work day, we created a system to effectively care for the days’ equids. We split into teams of intake, surgery, anesthesia, dentistry, and farriery. An arriero would arrive herding a group of anywhere from 5-20 loose horses and mules, and the intake team would perform an initial assessment of the animals: determine age, sex, body condition score, state of their teeth and feet; probe about any recent problems; and find out if they wanted their animal castrated. Intake would also address any obvious issues, such as saddle sores and vampire bat bites. After numbering each animal with a large crayon to keep straight who was who, we would vaccinate them against tetanus, give them a dose of de-wormer, and send them off to the other stations to perform work as needed.

Though we had few language barriers, effective communication could be a whole different story. I was prepared to see a different level of horse care than I was used to the U.S., but the experience was still a bit eye-opening. Most of the horses and mules had to be blind-folded for us to approach them, and they often feared the voices of their owners as much as any needle we would use. The relationship between arriero and mule was one of necessity; these were definitely working animals that families relied on for their income—not pets. Any breakthrough with the arrieros was rewarding, whether it be when they accepted the importance of dental work or proper hoof care, or when I made a point in effective mule handling with calm words and non-threatening movements. Though we didn’t leave a lasting impression on each owner, and I still got kicked by a couple ornery mules who didn’t give a hoot about my thoughts in horse-handling, the strides we made were important.

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