STUDENT EXPERIENCE: NICARAGUA

Submitted by Kathleen Kuhl, Long Island University (IVEC scholarship recipient)

"I recently returned from volunteering for Aprovet, a non-profit veterinary medicine organization located in Granada, Nicaragua, and I cannot say enough about how incredible my experience was. As an incoming second year veterinary student, I was eager to join a trip where I could gain more opportunities to practice my clinical skills in the veterinary field, and my experience with Aprovet exceeded my expectations. Our week-long trip included three surgery days at the Aprovet clinic and a community outreach day, where we traveled to a local neighborhood and provided wellness care for people’s pets. Not only was I able to perform surgeries myself, as well as monitor and provide care for patients, I gained a unique perspective on the veterinary needs of other communities outside of the United States. I learned to be extremely grateful for the resources we have in the United States to care for animals, whereas other countries are not as fortunate. However, despite lack of resources, Aprovet’s Dr. Lester and his staff demonstrated such compassion and kindness to all of the animals we treated during the trip and provided us with advice and new treatment techniques to add to our veterinary repertoire for the future. This trip made me realize the need for veterinary care around the world and how these kinds of trips are something I want to be a part of throughout my future career.

I also had the opportunity to meet some amazing people in the veterinary field from other areas of the United States and Nicaragua itself. I am incredibly grateful for the encouragement and positivity I received from the people around me during this trip because it made learning exciting and a lot less stressful. Additionally, my friend and I rescued two puppies from Nicaragua, who we brought back to the United States to give them a chance at a new lifestyle! We got both of the puppies new homes, which was an extremely rewarding feeling after seeing the lifestyle of so many of the dogs on the streets of Nicaragua. Overall, I had the best time in Nicaragua, and I cannot wait to go back and continue to provide veterinary care to all the animals in need!"