Veterinary Schools use SAVMA Grant funds for creative educational opportunities

Check out some of the fantastic things veterinary schools have been doing with grant money from SAVMA committees lately:

The Atlantic Veterinary College used a grant from SAVMA's Education and Professional Development Committee (EPDC) to host an Oil Spill workshop:

The Oil Spill Rehabilitation Course offered by the AVC Aquatics & Marine Wildlife
Club this spring was a great success! Dr. Helene Van Doninck, a TriState Certified
trainer from the Cobequid Rehabilitation Center in Truro, NS spent two days
teaching eager students, technicians and faculty about the realities of oil spills and
methods in rehabilitation of oiled wildlife. This included a one-day wetlab using
bird cadavers, which allowed the students to practice the handling and clean-up
techniques learned in the previous days lectures. The cost of Dr. Van Doninck’s
accommodations while at the course was graciously covered by a grant received
from SAVMA and the Education and Licensure Grant.

Michigan State University used an EPDC grant to hold a special lunch meeting on antimicrobial resistance

On October 12, the One Health Club at Michigan State's CVM held a panel on antimicrobial resistance
over lunch. Our panel consisted of Dr. Coretta Patterson, a small animal internist, Dr. Ron Erskine, a
food animal veterinarian with special interest in dairy cattle, Dr. Bo Norby, a veterinarian with special
interest in epidemiology and bovine tuberculosis, and Dr. Anthony Ognjan, an infectious disease
specialist in human medicine. These speakers came to answer questions and discuss the unique
challenges of antimicrobial resistance in their specific area of medicine. We were very happy to
welcome members of every veterinary school class and students from the MSU medical school to attend
and participate in asking questions of this panel.

We received very positive feedback from both those who attended and members of the panel.
Everyone seemed to learn a lot, especially with the presence of a human medicine perspective. We
all concluded that in order to understand such a large scale problem as antimicrobial resistance, the
participation of all areas of medicine (veterinary, human, environmental, etc.) is required.

The One Health Club would like to thank SAVMA EPDC for providing us with the funds to carry out this
informative and constructive meeting. We hope to continue to explore this topic in further panels.

Keep up the good and creative work! Thanks to the EPDC for offering the Education and Licensure Grant and to AVC and MSU's students for putting SAVMA's funds to good use! Keep an eye on your email for upcoming grant opportunities from SAVMA.

Return to Regularly Scheduled Blogging

Dear Readers-

We apologize for the interruption in posting this fall- rest assured we are now back to normal! Thank you for your understanding, your reading, and your creative submissions. :)

Thanks,

Ashley Smit

The Vet Gazette Editor

Life as a Vet Student- Advice to the Class of 2015

By Maite Torres

Kansas State University

Class of 2014

After so many years of hard work I finally made it! Now I’m extremely proud to say that I’m a second year veterinary student at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University! EMAW!!

 My first year of vet school counts as the most amazing, stressful, exciting, overwhelming and surprising year of my life. The most memorable part of it actually happened before it started: the day I found out that I was admitted. As many of us do, I applied to multiple schools; however, being a veterinary technician for our Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, being in love with the school and its people, and being a resident of Kansas, all my energy was focused on staying here. To my surprise, God and the CVM had a very special birthday present for me: “You’ve been admitted to KSU-CVM!”. I couldn’t find a way to contain my happiness.

                                     

                                 CVM-KSU Class of 2014 Logo (Photo: Melissa Watts)

Now, as classes began, things started to become a little bit tougher. Coming from Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean, I had and continue to have plenty of things to become adjusted to (even after being in the states for two years already).  Besides climate, language, and culture changes, I have to deal with many other issues. For example, the fact that I come from a loud culture makes it very hard for me to hear (soft voices) and understand what someone is saying if I’m unable to see the person’s face, or the fact that I’m still learning plenty of common phrases that aren’t taught in an English course but in everyday life. Other events that made the transition rough was the fact that I’m here on my own, (all of my family is in Puerto Rico); I had to quit the most exciting and amazing job I’ve ever had, (Zoological Medicine and Dermatology veterinary technician); I had to learn how to balance my personal life with my professional life; and learn how to live off student loans, in other words how to budget time and money. But, if you ask me which of all of these was the hardest transition I would have to say letting my job go; it took me more than one full semester to get over it. However, all of these sacrifices are completely worth it! I’m having the time of my life, making my dream come true.

Dr. James Carpenter and I

              Isla Verde, Puerto Rico

                      Academically, I think the hardest part of the freshman year is the ice breaking event: the first test, the BONES test. Everyone is wondering what it will be like, everyone is nervous, everyone is anxiously awaiting the outcome. Amazingly, everyone passes it and we realize that it is simply another test. All of our late night study sessions paid off. We learned that if we study hard enough the outcome will be what we all expect: to pass! After the first test is out of our way, we have a great celebration called the SHAFT party and then the rest of the year just continues to roll.

I’m so grateful and blessed to be here. I have made great friends, friends I love as the sisters I don’t have, clinicians I love as family, classmates I wouldn’t trade for anything because thanks to them I’ve grown as a person and as a professional. I wouldn’t have made it without the support of my family, my boyfriend’s support and help, and without my friends  

Now, second year BRING IT ON!

Creative Corner- "Flight"

By Kelsey Shaw

Cornell University

Family

By Oneal Peters

Colorado State University

The term multifactorial and poorly understood is a favourite amongst my professors and classmates. Even the very whisper of the word is met with a resounding moan because let’s face it, the reason certain conditions earn this terminology in veterinary medicine is because we have no clue how to explain it so we paste some fancy word to cover up our disillusion and we move on.

Family is sort of multifactorial and poorly understood for me and I suspect many others feel the same way. While I know what family is and what it means to me in my own life, I know that I wouldn’t ever be able to explain how my family is to anyone not directly in our clan.  That’s what’s so wonderful about it. It’s your own secret, something that you don’t have to share with anyone if you don’t want to. But here I am, attempting to explain how my family has helped me not only handle vet school now, but how they helped me prepare for this my entire life.

I can remember my dad telling me about his little sister, even when I was very young. He said that he had encouraged her not to sit around and behave like every other suburban middle class school girl but instead to work hard at school so she could be something one day. And somehow it had worked. She was valedictorian of her high school class and went on to get pristine grades in college. Now she is an executive in a major engineering firm, and owns a significant portion of the companies’ shares. So there it was, a random story about my smarty pants Aunt lingering in my brain as I grew up. I didn’t pay much attention to my dad’s influence on others until the other day when I listened to him talking to my younger sibling. “Everyday,” he said, scruffing up his wild grey hair and pausing while he tasted the words in his mouth, making sure they came out just right “you should either learn something new or make some money. If you do that, your life won’t be wasted.” My siblings just stare and sigh, another speech from their dad to add to all the others. “Yes dad, we know,” they reply, wanting to move past the lecture onto more exciting topics of conversation. I sit and watch, smile, I’ve heard it all before too. I am sure my Aunt did as she grew up, eating up her big brothers advice with a voracious appetite, so eager to please him just for the sake of making him proud. And now I realize what has always been there. The subtle urging of my father, quietly and precisely encouraging you to succeed, at first to make him proud, but as time goes on you start to try your hardest for yourself. Eventually, that’s all there is left and you forget that it all started with small pieces of advice, placed in the atmosphere for those who want it.

Veterinary school has its many challenges, and each member of my family, whether it’s a friend, my husband, sister, brother or mother has helped me get through those tough days, each person helping me in their own unique way. But it’s those moments like tonight, studying (and writing) at one in the morning that my dad is there for me, a steady voice in my head encouraging me to keep going no matter what and do my very best at all times and to always remember nothing worth doing is ever easy. The support from my family is mutifactorial, but perhaps now, after looking back all those years, it’s slightly better understood.