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Leading the Way as Veterinary School Gets Back in Full Swing

Veterinary students returned to our classes last Monday, Aug. 19, and with the new school brings excitement, challenges, and returning friends and classmates. This school year is my second in the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) program, and it has brought and will continue to bring new opportunities for myself and others to learn and grow in our future profession.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to explore new and exciting facets of the veterinary profession by attending the Society for Theriogenology conference in Savannah, Georgia, and presenting a student case study about stallion subfertility (whether the stallion is fertile).

Additionally, I was able to complete three externships—one at an emergency equine facility in Central Texas, one at a local mixed animal practice, and the last in the clinical pathology department here at Texas A&M University.

In my time between externships, I enjoyed working back home at Top Flight Farms, a breeder of champion Dutch Warmblood sport horses, where I was there to welcome the newest member to the farm, “Ode to Joy.”

I also had an amazing opportunity this summer to step into my new role as the lead ambassador for the CVM Tours program! My predecessor, Chelsea, is now in her fourth and final year in the DVM program and is hard at work in clinical rotations. Since May, I have been working hard to fill her shoes, learn the behind-the-scenes ropes of the CVM Ambassador program, and step up to the task.

As lead ambassador, I work with the many visitors and groups that come to our college every year to help them schedule tours, as well as work with our many departments within the college to accommodate any guests they receive. The CVM works effortlessly to accommodate all of our visitors, and by offering three tours a day during the semester, we were able to welcome more than 5,000 visitors in more than 500 tours this last year alone!

This fall semester we have an outstanding 43 ambassadors, including a diverse group of 17 biomedical sciences (BIMS) undergraduate majors and 27 professional students from within the DVM program. Our schedule for the fall is set and we will be offering three tours a day, Monday through Friday, and on Saturday mornings through December.

The ambassador program is a vital part of the CVM culture and we are often the first face you see when stepping through our doors. With the semester gearing up, I am ready, excited, and looking forward to taking the role of lead CVM ambassador and seeing what the CVM Ambassador program will achieve!

Wrapping up my First Year

Janelle M.Summer is here, and I can proudly say that I have finished one year of veterinary school! The first two semesters have flown by and, yet, they feel as if they took forever, as well.

After my friends and fellow classmates finished our last final on May 3, it finally hit us that we have completed our hardest school year. What felt “endless” had finally come to a finality, and we were in shock that our life-altering education had reached a moment of pause and rest.

Now, we have reached the months during which we can fully gel and absorb all that we learned.

I’ve gained so much knowledge and experience, and I didn’t do it alone. My class of 2022 has always felt like a unit, and I feel a bit sad about not seeing my unit day-to-day during these couple of months.

We did wish each other a wonderful and, more importantly, restful summer, but a few of us are working, myself included, while others are pursuing internships or going home to relax with family. Nonetheless, College Station will not be the same once everyone leaves this week.

My personal plans include working in the Small Animal Hospital and I’m so thrilled to apply all that I learned into a clinical setting. Being able to perform blood draws and catheters and take fluid rates and dosages hardly touches the number of skills I’ve gained this year, but it brings me closer to the professional that I aim to be after these couple of years.

My confidence level has soared further than I could have believed possible and I’m pumped to be working in the animal hospital.

Besides that, I will do more relaxing activities, too, this summer!

Two weekends of Schlitterbahn with the family may just do the trick with this Texas summer heat. Maybe going to a few reunions with some of my old friends who pulled through with me during our undergraduate years. It’s hard to believe I haven’t seen some of my friends since 2016.

This August, I plan having some me time and focusing on replenishing my energy for fall semester. It’s sort of crazy for me to already be considering my plans with next semester but I am honestly pumped to start as a second year.

It will come sooner than expected, but I’ll be ready for it, after, of course, I enjoy a little vacation time.

A Well-Deserved Summer

Ashlee A.As I write this entry, I am learning how it feels to make my own schedule after finishing my first year of veterinary school!

This year I have learned so much about veterinary medicine and, especially, myself.

This summer I plan to enjoy time with family, visit different veterinary practices, and help with a few research projects while applying all of the knowledge that I’ve gained this year.

In first year, we have taken almost 50 exams over many hours of lectures and labs, so it’s very easy to feel lost, defeated, and exhausted.

However, we have learned much more than we ever thought we could, and we know how to apply it.

Looking back on this quick year I am so proud of myself and my classmates for the things we have accomplished.

We’ve learned how important it is to learn and retain base veterinary information, we are a network of support for each other, and we are one-fourth of the way to being doctors!

I am excited to return as a 2VM and build on this foundation, but I’m thankful for a well-deserved summer.

Looking Forward to Summer

Katelyn K.As my first year in veterinary school is drawing to a close, I am looking forward to the summer!

Before I started vet school last semester, my mentors back home told me to explore as many aspects of veterinary medicine as possible to not only realize the vastness of the fields in veterinary medicine, but also to confirm where my interests truly lie.

And that is exactly what I’ll be spending my summer doing—exploring the different fields of this profession.

This summer, I’ll be participating in three externships—all different from one another. One will be working only with horses in a specialty practice; one will be working with food animals, such as cattle, pigs, and goats in a rural environment; and the last one will be exploring the world of veterinary pathology.

In addition, I get to travel to Savannah, Georgia, to give an oral presentation on at the Society for Theriogenology conference this July!

So although this isn’t necessarily a typical summer “vacation,” it’s one that certainly offers a lot of opportunities!