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WHOOP for Junior Year!

As sad as I am to see such a fun and busy summer end, I am super excited for my third year at TAMU!

The past few months have been packed with adventure and meaningful experiences. To start off the summer break, Angelica, a fellow CVM Ambassador and mentor, and I attended a two week pre-vet program in Chintsa, South Africa!

We had the time of our lives and got to interact with so many different types of animals and amazing people. It was my first time abroad, and it made me want to travel again as soon as possible!

My favorite part of the trip was the interactions we had with the giraffes. One was with a giraffe named Abby that lived on a reserve and had been raised by humans since birth because him was orphaned. Abby is a very friendly giraffe and loves people, especially when they feed him. We each got to take turns doing so, and Abby even licked my forehead!

Another exciting experience was that we got to be involved with a giraffe capture in an effort to relocate a male giraffe to a different reserve, which allows conservationists to maintain a diverse gene pool!

During the rest of the summer, I stayed busy by working at the local veterinary
clinic I have been volunteering at since I was in high school. One of my volunteer activities was also with a church-based organization called Summer Lunch, for which volunteers set up a pavilion tent at an elementary school park each weekday during the summer to distribute paper bag lunches to children in need of a meal, as well as to their other family members. It was such a rewarding experience for me because I love working with kids, and being able to provide them with something so important to their everyday lives was wonderful.

Another volunteer job I had was at the Dallas Zoo! I enjoyed working with and learning about exotic animals so much in South Africa that I wanted to continue it.

At the zoo, I worked at their Animal Nutrition Center. I got behind-the-scenes experience in helping to prepare the diets for the zoo’s thousands of animals! It was very interesting to see what each animal ate and how much food they needed to consume on a daily basis. I plan to continue volunteering there whenever I go back home for school breaks!

Summer Fun


There’s a quote, attributed to Brian Jackman, that says, “Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same.”

Summertime for veterinary students is a time for us to get our hands dirty using the skills we learned over the last year in the areas of veterinary medicine that we are interested in. I used my time this summer to hop a plane and fly halfway around the world to South Africa on a faculty-led study abroad trip for conservation medicine and wildlife management.

Traveling abroad exposes you to new cultures and people. I was amazed to find at one of the ranches we volunteered at that the employees were from many different countries and cultures and spoke so many languages and dialects that they couldn’t even have a full conservation! Yet, somehow, they all work together to perform the very intricate operation of immobilizing, transporting, treating, and handling wild animals.

 

One of the best parts about exploring other cultures is the food. We were fed many dishes with proteins that are uncommon back home like lamb and a variety of wild antelope species. I’m personally not very adventurous with food, and especially proteins, but all of the dishes were amazing. You have to embrace the experience and at least try it.

 

The other best part was all of the animals we visited in the zoos; watching them run wild and free over there, without much influence from mankind, creates a whole new connection to nature that I never imagined. Since getting to work hands on with rhinos, lion, sable, roan, and so many more species, I am excited to learn more about our local wildlife and how veterinarians play a role in their management.

 

I look forward to my next passport stamp, hopefully somewhere tropical. You never know what kind of connections you will make when you travel—maybe you’ll find a way to use skills that you never imagined you might have, or maybe you will discover a new passion or job opportunity.

Remember that you’re not limited to what’s right in front of you; there is a whole world out there waiting for you to explore.

Celebrating Senior Year in South Africa

Senior year is finally here for me!

 

To kick off my last undergraduate year, over the summer, I went on a pre-veterinary internship to South Africa in May. Hannah, a fellow CVM Ambassador and friend, accompanied me on this life-changing experience.

We traveled to Chintsa, South Africa, to shadow and assist veterinarians from all over the world through the program Safari 4U. It was a two-week internship that included 100 veterinary hours of experience, and we were able to interact with exotic and domestic animals of various types. From community service to game capture, we did it all!

 

 

Each day, we would drive to townships, known as underdeveloped urban areas, and go around the community to
give medical treatment to the locals’ animals, which ranged from dogs, puppies, cattle, and others. We did our
veterinary services for free for the locals and even held a spay and neuter clinic. Hannah and I received hands-on experience in giving    de-wormer to puppies and Ivermectin to animals in need.

 

 

For game captures, we were able to relocate animals for safety and breeding, and we personally were able to assist in moving a giraffe to his new home! We saw zebra, impala, blesbok, giraffes, lions, warthogs, and so much more! Each day was an adventure with a veterinarian or veterinary nurse/technician.

After a hard day’s work, we would go to the beach, ride horses, quad bike (or four wheel) up a mountain, or just gather seashells on the shore. It was a beautiful place to visit, even though it was the beginning of their winter season.

 

Overall, the trip greatly impacted Hannah and me in our decision to become veterinarians. Someday, I would love to return to the program as a veterinarian and teach some of the courses that were taught to me.

Summer Plans

Hannah JSummer is so close I can almost taste it! This semester I will be finishing up my sophomore year at Texas A&M as a biomedical sciences (BIMS) major, and looking back, I just can’t believe how incredibly fast it has gone by.

A piece of advice that I would give to any student starting college would be to make every semester count. Get involved in things you love doing and gain as many new experiences as possible.

That’s something I plan to do this summer!

Angelica, a fellow Ambassador, and I will be leaving the United States in a little over a week to travel to South Africa! Ever since I was a child, going to Africa has always been something I knew I wanted to do, specifically to be able to interact with the wildlife there.

Angelica and I heard about a program through Pre-Vet Society that offers a two-week trip to Chinsta, South Africa, that enables us to have this experience.

The program is offered to any pre-vet student from anywhere in the world! It will be exciting to meet other students from different countries who are also interested in veterinary medicine.

The program is split into three parts, each working with different animals, including wildlife such as zebras, antelopes, and giraffes and at the zoo located close to town; cattle and equine; and small animals at a few clinics in the area.

We have known we wanted to go on this trip for probably over a year now and I can’t believe it is finally almost upon us!

Neither Angelica nor I have ever traveled outside of the country before, and there was a lot to do in order to be prepared for the trip. We had to get our passports, book our flights, and receive the recommended vaccinations, as well as buy all the recommended items for the trip.

The travel time to Chinsta will be quite long—in total, about 25 hours! South Africa is also seven hours ahead of Texas, so I’m sure we will be facing quite a bit of jet lag!

Since it will be the first time out of the country for the both of us, we plan to document every detail we can!

I bought a Nikon camera last summer and will bring it with me on the trip with. I love using it and am really into photography; I even joined the photography club this past year!

Angelica also bought a camera recently that she plans to take on the trip! We hope to take photographs of the wonderful animals we see, as well as the beautiful landscape. Chinsta is located close to the coast, so we may even get to visit the ocean!

It will be fall time there, so we are planning to dress in layers that we can take off as it gets warmer as the day goes on. It will be strange to go from this Texas heat to cooler weather and then come right back.

I am glad not to be taking any classes this summer and plan to come back home and work at the veterinary clinic I worked at in high school for the rest of my summer break.

I wish you all a relaxing summer and hope to share with you all the fun I will have on my trip!