Aggie Veterinary Student Pursues Career Goals With Help From Biomedical Sciences Master’s Degree
Story by Logan Hansen, VMBS Marketing & Communications
Photos by Ryleigh Rejcek ’26, VMBS Marketing & Communications
Rolling up in a mobile vaccine clinic, sprinting after a lost dog in the middle of the night, or even spending an afternoon inquiring about caffeine’s effect on cows is a typical day for Brianna Bazel, a third-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) student at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS)
Bazel’s nontraditional path to veterinary school has included time in the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets as an undergraduate and with the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) master’s non-thesis degree program, taking her on a journey full of memorable moments that have been driven by her curiosity to explore the world of veterinary medicine.
A Texas Transition
Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, Bazel never imagined that her path would intersect with Texas.
“I came down to Texas when I was 17 after my mom’s travel nursing assignment,” Bazel said. “She expected to be here for a few weeks, but then she met my stepdad. She fell in love, married him, and they have been together for 10 years now.”
Her mom’s career as an emergency pediatric nurse introduced Bazel to the world of medicine, but because of her lifelong love for animals, she chose to pursue a career as a veterinarian. She also appreciated the flexibility, freedom, and pace a veterinary medicine career could offer.
“If I have an interest in emergency medicine, I can do that immediately after graduation,” Bazel said. “If I want to work with cows in 10 years, I can do that. If I want to be a pathologist, I can go back to school and pursue that. I just love how broad the field is.”
When it came time to choose a college for her undergraduate degree, Bazel was drawn to Texas A&M both because it was where her stepdad graduated and because of its reputation as a friendly campus; as a BIMS major, she also found community with the Corps of Cadets during Fish Camp.
“I spent four years running around in khakis as a cadet in company I-1,” Bazel said. “I loved my Corps community; it gave me a support structure I wouldn’t have had had I gone the traditional route.”
Bazel also enjoyed the hands-on experiences she received from the BIMS program.
“I worked at the Winnie Carter Wildlife Center with Dr. Alice Blue-McLendon, caring for deer, zebras, and other exotic animals,” Bazel said. “I also got to go hang out with alpacas with the Pre-Vet Society, where I helped coordinate the Shadow Program — an opportunity for members to be matched with a veterinarian for shadowing.”
The BIMS Master’s Advantage
Despite her experiences during undergrad, Bazel felt that her veterinary school application was lacking, so she decided to pursue a master’s degree; she believed that the fast-paced nature of the VMBS’ BIMS master’s program would help her ease the transition between her undergraduate experience and veterinary school and pursued the program’s non-thesis option (BIMS NTO).
“I wanted extra guidance and structure, and the BIMS master’s degree program gave me a clear, linear path to become a good applicant for vet school,” Bazel said. “The idea behind the program is that you’re being set up for success in professional schooling.”
Since completing her master’s degree, to her surprise, Bazel has discovered that there is overlap in the BIMS NTO coursework and the first year of veterinary school, with anatomy and physiology being almost identical.
The mentorship available through the graduate program also helped enhance her veterinary school application.
“During my wildlife disease course, I was able to meet Dr. Walter Cook, the resident wildlife disease expert here at Texas A&M,” Bazel said. “Through his class I got the chance to give a lecture on bluetongue virus (an insect-borne virus affecting ruminants) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (a fatal illness that affects white-tailed deer) to a crowd of undergrads. This opportunity allowed me to dive into these diseases and gain an interest in pursuing future studies regarding the topic.”
Following the course’s end, Bazel was able to research white-tailed deer alongside Cook.
“I also got to shadow Dr. Albert Mulenga in his lab for a semester,” Bazel said. “He’s working on some extremely cool genetics research that could someday lead to anti-tick vaccines. His team is incredibly smart, and I felt so lucky to get to meet them.”
Even years after completing her master’s program, Bazel said she’s still able to count on the mentors who invested in her long-term success.
“Dr. Christine Budke was my chair for the BIMS NTO program,” Bazel said. “She helped me prepare my vet school application and she’s even my coauthor and boss for a research project I am working on.”
These experiences built her confidence — and her veterinary school application — and she was accepted into the VMBS’ 2+2 DVM program in Canyon, Texas, as a member of the DVM Class of 2027. She has also realized how instrumental the BIMS NTO program has been in preparing her for the rigor of professional school.
“I am so deeply grateful for the experience that I got from the BIMS master’s program,” she said. “It gave me the preparation I needed for doing a lot of very complicated things very quickly. It helped me build confidence so that even if I fall flat on my face one day, it won’t be the end of the world.”
“The most important thing for prospective students to remember is that you should not build this idea of ‘my life doesn’t start until vet school,’ because that’s not true. I got to experience so much just being on that journey.”
Brianna Bazel
Pursuing Unique Experiences
As part of the 2+2 program, Bazel completed the first two years of her veterinary education at the VMBS’ Veterinary Education, Research, & Outreach (VERO) campus, located on the West Texas A&M University campus.
“I appreciated the small class sizes, the student-to-faculty ratio, the chance to explore a new part of Texas, and the opportunity to become more comfortable with food animal medicine,” Bazel said. “I got what I came for, and I am very grateful for the mentorship that I received as well as the friends I made at VERO.”
As a veterinary student, Bazel’s interests have continued to evolve as she’s taken advantage of opportunities presented to her.
“I was one of 12 people in the country who entered the Boehringer Ingelheim and USDA Agricultural Research Service Program,” Bazel said. “I was in Kansas working with Dr. Stacey Scroggs, a government virologist who studies the effects of vesicular stomatitis, bluetongue virus (BTV), and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV).”
BTV and EHDV are especially dangerous because they can adapt rapidly, much like the influenza virus. This makes vaccine development difficult, and the initiative to understand how these viruses operate that much more important.
These experiences, along with more traditional veterinary roles — including her work as an animal control officer (ACO) — have led Bazel to return to the field of shelter medicine. Combining her passions, she is currently conducting a research project in which she’s analyzing a year’s worth of bite report data from five cities in Texas.
“I’ve found a love for population health, which makes me feel like I’m making an impact,” Bazel said.
Living And Learning
In between her classes and extracurriculars, Bazel can be found tapping into her Corps roots.
“I’m a trail runner; this is the biggest thing I got out of the Corps,” Bazel said. “I go to Lake Bryan every weekend and run around the wilderness up there. I go right at sundown so that it’s the last thing I do before I wind down for the night — it’s a nice chance to decompress.”
As she nears the end of veterinary school, Bazel is open to going wherever her widespread interests take her.
“The most important thing for prospective students to remember is that you should not build this idea of ‘my life doesn’t start until vet school,’ because that’s not true,” Bazel said. “I got to experience so much just being on that journey.
“I didn’t do things just for the process; I did them for me,” Bazel said. “So, my advice to aspiring veterinarians is to explore — do the things that look cool, have fun, and get a little sidetracked. It’s OK if you are more than a pre-vet student. You can be human, too.”
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For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216
