Pursuing A Purpose: Fourth-Year DVM Student Looks Toward Internship Following Graduation

The spirit of Aggieland rests in the people who have made Texas A&M University worth missing. 

For Kortney Lyle, this sentiment rings true, as the community cultivated through passionate pursuits echoes across generations that have called College Station home — even if only for a short time.

As graduation nears, Lyle, a fourth-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) student at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS), is preparing to leave the classroom with the goal of one day returning to support and teach future veterinary students.  

Discovering A Passion 

Growing up in Klein, Texas — just an hour away from College Station — Lyle was already familiar with Aggieland.

“Both of my parents went to Texas A&M and met here, which encouraged my older sister to attend A&M and graduate with a biomedical sciences (BIMS) degree in 2020,” Lyle said.

While her sister was in Aggieland, Lyle traveled for volleyball and became more involved in her high school’s FFA program. When she wasn’t spending time at the barn tending to animals, she was focusing on her veterinary medicine practicum in school, a field she was inspired to pursue by great-aunt Liz, who had also worked in a veterinary clinic since she was 16 years old. 

“Throughout the FFA, I had 12 rabbits, two pigs, a steer, a heifer, and some chickens; my dad and I got to do that together, which was a great bonding experience for us,” she said. “Twice a week, I also got to leave school early to work in a vet clinic in The Woodlands as a hospital attendant.

“I’ve always known I loved medicine, and animal care seemed to resonate more with me — and then FFA definitely solidified that I wanted to be a veterinarian,” Lyle said. 

Seeking Community In Aggieland

Lyle knew that the relationships her parents and older sister had crafted at Texas A&M were something she also wanted for herself. So, following in her sister’s footsteps, Lyle also pursued a BIMS degree. 

“The BIMS program is especially great preparation for anybody wanting to attend professional school, making the choice of going to A&M easy,” Lyle said.

Immersing herself in campus life, Lyle joined a Freshman Leadership Organization (FLO) and became  involved with Fish Camp, serving as a counselor for two years and also as co-chair. 

“Fish Camp brought me out of my shell and helped me understand my priorities and personality while building community and leadership skills,” she said. 

Lyle also became involved in research as an undergraduate. 

“I had gotten a job in an entomology lab on the main campus and did a lot of work with mosquitoes,” Lyle said. “I was responsible for going in and feeding them every day. I think the experience ultimately helped me a lot with being independent.”

All of these activities helped shape Lyle in her journey to attending veterinary school.

“It was my mom’s birthday and my parents had just flown into the Grand Canyon when they released the acceptances,” Lyle said. “I got to call my mom and say, ‘Guess what? Happy birthday…I got in!’”

Graduate Exploration

Entering the DVM program, Lyle felt grateful for her support team — which included two new roommates — but uncertainty soon followed.

“The first week of school was really hard for me because I had a lot of friends who were set in their specialty, and I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Lyle said. “Hearing all of them be so excited about their set path was really challenging because I didn’t necessarily have a clear vision of where I wanted to end up.”

Determined to allow her passions to lead her, Lyle kept an open mind. 

“My interests changed with whatever we were learning,” she said. 

In her fourth year, during which all DVM students spend a full calendar year working in Texas A&M’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH), she fell in love with veterinary academia.

“It has been incredible to work alongside all of these people who are so smart, dedicated to their speciality, and actively dedicating time to research in order to help progress the field,” Lyle said. “In academia, you have all of these people who are concentrated in one area and you see them collaborate.

“Seeing the residents impact us through teaching really drove home that I wanted to be in an academic setting,” Lyle said. 

This desire has also been grounded in the strong mentorships Lyle has developed within the VMBS — from Dr. Karen Cornell, associate dean for the DVM program, whose consistent support and opportunities guided her, to Dr. Audrey Cook, her assigned faculty mentor, whose dedication helped her succeed.

“I hope to impact future veterinary students, whether they plan to go into specialty medicine like myself, or if they just take something that I say and are able to apply it to something in their life,” Lyle said.

Choosing A Specialty and Looking Ahead 

Although she had chosen academia, Lyle was still searching for her specialty — until a case involving a 120-pound black Labrador Retriever came to the VMTH with a herniated disk in his neck.

“The location of the disk made the procedure difficult, long, and intense, but being in there and hearing all of the neurologists collaborate and talk about how they were going to fix it was surreal and so cool,” Lyle said. “During the patient’s recovery, I was able to take a video of him taking his first steps in the hospital and send it to his owner. The moment truly brought a tear to my eye.”

Through additional clinical rotations, Lyle kept coming back to the intriguing cases and continued to be inspired by neurologists at the VMTH — especially Dr. Eileen Donoghue, a third-year neurology resident.

“I have a vision now, which I didn’t feel in the first three years,” Lyle said. “It’s very exciting and motivating to know I want to be a neurologist in academia.”

She hopes to one day conduct clinical research that will improve the lives of both neurology patients and their owners.

“With a lot of animals who have a back injury, their quality of life is very hard to maintain, so improving their ability to function has the opportunity to greatly improve the well-being of both patient and owner,” Lyle said.

Her next step to achieving this goal will take Lyle to Colorado, where she’ll fulfill a lifelong dream of living in the Centennial State, after matching with Colorado State University for an internship following graduation. 

“I love A&M, living in Texas, and the neurology service here, so I would absolutely consider returning if I decided to come back home,” Lyle said. “For now, I’m keeping an open mind, as I have been doing throughout this whole process.”

For anyone considering veterinary medicine as a potential career, Lyle advises them to embrace their differences and invest time in their peers, who will become their lifelong friends. For her, that combination allowed her to see how everyone’s journey is perfectly unique — including her own.  

“I would encourage them to stick with it,” she said. “If you really want it, there is a way to get there. I never expected to have that ‘click’ moment, but then it did. And it feels so good when it does.”