Integrated Communication and Diversity Committee Grant

The new SAVMA Integrated Communication and Diversity Committee is happy to announce their new spring grant. The goal is to enhance communication between SCAVMA, SAVMA and the AVMA while enhancing diversity awareness through promoting community activities and opportunities. A total of four grants will be awarded to clubs or individuals. Grants will be given to deserving individuals or groups who host a diversity based activity with a larger communication component for the public. A 300-500 word essay briefly describing the activity and how communication occurred. Successful examples will be published in the Vet Gazette. In order to qualify for the grant, no fundraising component can come from the activity, and any notes, posters, or pamphlets given at the event must accompany the write up. Write-ups are due March 16, 2011, 7 days prior-to SAVMA Symposium in the spring. They can be sent to Chad Clancy at csclancy@iastate.edu

Note: Diversity is NOT limited to multicultural diversity and write-ups focusing on diversity within the veterinary field will be accepted.

Examples: Pathologist outreach activities, exotic pet 101 petcare events, public health lectures with brochures, international “vets without boarders” talks and opportunities, welfare workshops or volunteer based projects, shelter medicine outreach events, opportunities for exploring diversity within the veterinary medical world are endless!

6 Ways to Beat Finals and Holiday Stress on a Budget

By: Brittany Wojcicki

University of Illinois, Class of 2014

(Editor's note: Again, I know this is a little late, but it's a pretty good one. And besides, why should we not bake cookies and give each gifts year round?)

1. Eat the cookies that your friends and family give you during exams…you’ll need a glucose surge when you can’t remember the glycolysis pathway.

2. Regifting saves both time and money! If you can radiograph the present before opening, then you save wrapping too!

3. Buying gifts online can save time, but shipping can cost a bundle! Using gifts from your pantry saves time and money if you can whip up a fruit basket or cheese and cracker basket before it goes bad. Deliver before expiration date.

4. Christmas caroling doesn’t have to be a thing of the past. Change your voicemail to you and your dog singing “Silent Night” and you’ll carol to all your family and friends you ignore while you’re at the library.

5. Who has time to comb out the cat and your hair during finals to take Christmas card pictures? Facebook or twitter is bound to have one decent picture before you’ve gained finals/holiday weight. If not,www.elfyourself.com still hasn’t gotten old.

6. By now you’ve taken at least one of these tips to heart and won’t read past 5 anyways. Happy Holidays and good luck on finals!

Ready for Anesthesia

By: Melissa Baker

Ross University, Class of 2012

If only they could come to school and make all those dots for you!

Christmas Karma

By: Scott Dudis

Cornell University, Class of 2014

Remembering perspective is, perhaps, the best way to deal with stress. As exams were wrapping up this December, I was thinking about wrapping up presents and packing a suitcase as I bragged to “less fortunate” classmates whom I knew were scheduled in the clinic on the holiday. I boasted that I would be home, with my family, enjoying my time off. Instead of surprises in the form of many glorious gifts, I was visited by the Ghost of Christmas Irony as I, too, spent several hours at the emergency animal hospital with my own dog, all night on December 25^th. In short, she apparently decided it was Santa who had left her a small box of Dove Dark Chocolate Truffles under the tree, not one of my relatives who had, in fact, accidentally left it unattended while we were all away.

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Finals and Stress

By: Stephanie Silberstang

Cornell University, Class of 2013

(Editor's note: I know the holidays are long past us, but finals never are. Just remember to take time for yourself!)

In order to deal with finals and holiday stress, I have realized that I must focus on the little things. This idea took many years to come to me, I realized it halfway through my 4-year undergraduate education. I have never been one to go home for the four week break and relax, although I always want that. Instead, I somehow manage to overbook myself with too many plans that overlap and must be executed perfectly in order to work. For example, this winter break I went skiing, visited my friend for Christmas, went to New York City for a week and took a two week trip to Honduras to learn and improve my wildlife handling skills. These activities all took place within days of each other, and although they were all relaxing as separate activities, I was continuously  thinking of the next step and planning ahead. Not to mention this whirlwind of a winter break directly followed the stress that comes with the end of every semester: finals. They require hour after hour of studying, long nights in the library, and neglect of other areas in my life that would keep me happier and healthier.

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