IVSA Reps Meeting at SAVMA Symposium

IVSA Group Exchange

Eleven Danish veterinary students from the University of Copenhagen visited the University of Florida CVM this past November as part of an International Veterinary Students' Association (IVSA) exchange trip. The UF students will be visiting Copenhagen this May. The IVSA is an international association of which SAVMA is a member. While the US is an active participant in the IVSA meetings, this is only the second group exchange to take place in the US. During the exchange in Florida, students went to St. Augustine Beach, took a behind the scenes tour at SeaWorld, went alligator "hunting" along Gainesville's nature trails, toured the UF College of Veterinary Medicine and a local animal shelter, visited a brewery, and ate plenty of barbecue at American parties. The American students are looking forward to visiting Copenhagen in May.

IVSA happenings at Oregon State University

One of the benefits of being a SAVMA member is that you are also a member of the International Veterinary Students' Association (IVSA). Read below to see what Oregon State University's chapter is up to!

The OSU International Veterinary Students Association has been very busy over the last few months.  We started out the school year with the very successful Run for Ukraine in October followed up by OHOW week in January.  In winter term we awarded scholarships to Nicaragua 2012 participants, and the term was rounded out by our annual silent auction.  Plans for the 2013 trip to Nicaragua are well under way; applications were received and approved in January.  The 2013 Nicaragua participants began their required seminars on April 2nd; those will continue through spring term.  Representatives from our IVSA group attended the tenth annual Western Regional International Health Conference at OHSU at the beginning of April and there is more IVSA fun to come.  Don't forget the International Food Fest coming sometime in May!

On October 14th IVSA held The Run for Ukraine.  This event received a lot of community support and raised $785 that will be used to further veterinary care in our sister city of Uzhgorod, Ukraine and assist the community of Ukraine with healthcare for their citizens suffering with tuberculosis.  Currently, Uzhgorod does not have an animal shelter, the community hopes to put these funds toward the effort of establishing one.

OHOW (One-Health-One-World) week was January 7-11 and the proceeds from this event also went to our sister city Uzhgorod, Ukraine; a grand total of $874.67.  The events of the week consisted of a presentation from the Corvallis Sister City Association, a penny drive that the Class of 2014 won again this year, and several lunches sponsored by IVSA, AAEP, Therio Club, SCAVMA, Class of 2014 and Shelter Med Club.  There was also a fundraiser sponsored by Woodstocks Pizza in which 30% of the proceeds were donated to our sister city.

Thanks to Dr. Bermudez and the Department of Biomedical Sciences, we were able to award 8 scholarships for

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IVSA UPenn Thailand Trip 2010

By: Steven Fernandez

Class of 2013, University of Pennsylvania

The International Veterinary Student Association (IVSA) University of Pennsylvania chapter took on the challenge this past year to organize a trip with a contact from a Thai veterinarian and practice owner of Vet4 Polyclinic in Bangkok, Thailand. Our IVSA UPenn chapter was unaware that this veterinary practice is a well-known and respected clinic in all of Thailand. Vet4 was the first clinic in Thailand to start hydrotherapy for dogs and third to do total hip replacements. Hundreds of emails later throughout the entire academic year, IVSA UPenn sent 14 veterinary students and one local veterinarian to Bangkok, Thailand to start their hands-on training 9,500 miles away.

The trip consisted of 5 clinic days where the students were able to do full spays and castrations from incision to closure at no cost to the owners. We held a series of wetlabs using cadavers weeks in advance to prepare for surgery thanks to the help of our IVSA faculty advisor and surgery residents. Throughout the year we fundraised as much as possible to reduce the cost of the trip and we received lots of donations to offer better medical care for our patients. We brought extra luggage filled with IDEXX Snap tests, injectable Metacam (courtesy of Boerhinger-Ingelheim) for pain management, sterile surgery gloves, lots of frontline (courtesy of Merial), and sterile drapes (courtesy of GEPCO). Students learned how to keep their patient under anesthesia using basic drugs that were available to us. One of the major challenges with outdoor surgery was the incredibly high temperatures dogs had while recovering. Nonetheless, animals did recover and were sent on their way once they were able to walk.

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International Veterinary Exchange Committee Scholarships

Are you planning a grand trip to another country to learn about veterinary medicine? Want a chance at some easy cash to help pay for the trip? Look no further than here, with your International Veterinary Exchange Committee!

The IVEC is offering three individual international travel student scholarships, $500 each AND one IVSA Club Awards, $500. The club award is available for International Veterinary Student Association (IVSA) chapters for events and activities related to international vet med.

Deadlines: Individual scholarship and IVSA Club Award applications are due February 1st, 2011

Applications will be posted on the SAVMA IVEC website soon: http://www.avma.org/noah/members/savma/committees/internat.asp

Questions about this opportunity can be sent to: ivecscholarships@gmail.com