New Externship Introduces Texas A&M Veterinary Students To Rural Life
Story by Rachel Knight, VMBS Marketing & Communications
A new preclinical externship allows veterinary students to experience rural life and explore career possibilities in small towns across the Lone Star State.

local community at the McCulloch County courthouse
Imagine you’re at a Friday night high school football game. Like everybody else in your small town, you’re here to support the home team.
At the gate, you greet a veterinary client whose cat you vaccinated last week. They take your ticket and thank you again for protecting their beloved pet and their family with the routine vaccination and checkup you performed.
As you walk to the bleachers, you pass a rancher who lets you know they have a cow that should calve any day now. They mention they may need your help, and you smile, knowing this is the very reason you keep calving equipment in your pickup truck.
As you take your seat, the team runs out. Suddenly, you find yourself cheering for some of your favorite mentees. The quarterback and nose tackle have veterinary career aspirations of their own, and you’ve enjoyed having them shadow you at the clinic for the last three summers.
For veterinarians who serve small towns across Texas and beyond, this isn’t an imaginary scenario. It’s the reality of being an integral part of a community.
With many small towns lacking access to veterinary care, and in many cases human health care as well, it’s more important now than ever to attract young veterinarians to rural communities. A new partnership at Texas A&M University is dedicated to doing just that by showing veterinary students the joys of living and working in a small town.




Serving Rural Texas
For more than 100 years, the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) has been committed to graduating veterinarians who are prepared to serve communities of all sizes. This commitment also includes addressing the growing need for veterinarians in small towns and rural communities.
One of the VMBS’ newest efforts in addressing the nationwide rural veterinarian shortage includes a program launched over the 2024 summer known as the Rural Veterinary Practice Preclinical Externship.
The program allows first- and second-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students to complete a two-week externship in a rural Texas veterinary clinic. Students also live in the community they’re serving and are introduced by local leaders to the small-town lifestyle.
“The program is really designed to show students the veterinary profession through a new lens,” said Dr. Kristin Chaney, assistant dean for professional programs, curriculum, and assessment. “We’re showing them that when they choose to serve in a small town, they quickly become a pillar of the community.
“In rural towns, people look to veterinarians to be more than just the dog and cat vet on the corner,” Chaney continued. “They’re someone the community can trust to help their animals and who can contribute to leadership positions like the school board. These individuals really get to be part of something bigger in our rural areas, and that’s something I’m excited for our students to see.”
Partners In Serving Rural Texas
The Rural Veterinary Practice Preclinical Externship program is modeled after and hosted in tandem with the Texas A&M College of Medicine’s Rural Medicine Program, which began in 2019 with the goal of introducing medical students to the rural areas where they are often needed most.
As the medicine program experienced success, communities participating in the program began asking Curtis Donaldson ‘81, the College of Medicine’s director of rural medicine, if it would be possible to include veterinary students, so he contacted the VMBS, and work began to develop a veterinary version of the program.
“When we opened applications for the program, we were hopeful that we’d have 10 students apply. We expected the program would gain popularity once a first cohort of students had completed it,” Chaney said. “We were blown away when the students almost doubled our expectations, with over 20 students applying to participate.”
The students spent two weeks this summer living and working in 10 rural communities.
“Before participating in the program, I thought it would be difficult as an outsider coming to work in a small town. However, after my experience, my initial thoughts couldn’t have been further from the truth,” said Laurel Bailey, a second-year veterinary student who completed the externship. “There was a strong sense of community, and everyone was so welcoming and eager to have veterinary students come to learn and be immersed in the community.
“I also gained a better understanding of the need for more rural veterinarians and the impact veterinarians can have throughout the community beyond just veterinary medicine,” Bailey continued. “It is very common for a small town to only have one veterinarian, which can quickly overwhelm the capacity and ability to accommodate every animal and client’s needs throughout the community.”
Dr. Glennon Mays, VMBS director of recruitment and student services, said the program doesn’t just benefit the veterinary students who choose to participate.
“It is a two-way street,” he explained. “Of course, it is great for the students to see what life is really like as a veterinarian in a rural community, but it is equally as important for the veterinarians in these towns to have the opportunity to showcase what they do in their practice, their caseload, how they interact with clients, and what type of participation they have in the community as a whole.”


Mays said this is beneficial to the veterinarians because it helps students see them as future employers and mentors.
“I served in a rural community for 30-plus years,” Mays said. “I wish we’d had a program like this when I was in private practice. It’s an opportunity to introduce veterinary students to your community, to start building a relationship with them, to possibly bring them on after they graduate, and then to help mentor them as young veterinarians. Perhaps someday they’ll want to take over the practice, which is good, because that gives you a retirement plan or exit strategy. They can take over the practice when you decide to hang up your hat, and you don’t have to feel guilty for retiring because you know your clients are in good hands.”
Leading The Way In Rural Communities
Programs like the Rural Veterinary Practice Preclinical Externship are set up for success by the generosity of donors like Judy D. ‘78 and Dr. Tim R. Turner ‘74, ‘77, who provided financial assistance for the program so that participants could receive a $1,500 stipend to support their travel and expenses during the two weeks serving in the program. Supporting students by helping cover their expenses in the externship was a no-brainer, according to the Turners.
“The Turners’ support is incredible,” Mays said. “It’s an absolute ‘got-to-have-it’ piece of the puzzle in providing these opportunities for anyone who might be interested in seeing first-hand what it means to serve in a rural community.”
Bailey reiterated that the financial support made the decision to participate easy.
“Their generosity made this possible for me,” Bailey said. “I am extremely grateful to them. Their donation helped alleviate the financial stress that can be associated with these types of experiences and allowed me to focus on my time as an extern, to strengthen my skills, and to truly immerse myself within the community.”
In addition to providing the monetary support students need to cover expenses, Alyssa Otto, a first-year veterinary student who completed the externship, said the Turners provided reassurance.
“With many rural veterinarians playing a role in livestock agriculture, it is a blessing that this profession is being recognized for its role and that someone is willing to help more students experience it for themselves,” Otto said. “This is vital for the continued good health of our food animals.”
Chaney also expressed gratitude for the Turners’ generosity and pointed out that future donors who choose to support the program will allow more students and veterinary practices across Texas to participate.
“The Turners are amazing partners. Their donation allowed us to host additional students in the pilot program because it meant we could support more students.” Chaney said. “With additional donor support in the future, we’re hopeful that we can double both the number of rural communities and the number of students participating. The more Texans we can serve with this program, the better positioned we are to support rural communities.”


DVM students Evie Rider and Jack Richison at Wilkinson Veterinary Clinic in Premont, Texas
Initial feedback from the pilot program is positive and the future looks bright.
“This program is unique in the fact that we offer an interprofessional education opportunity that allows our students to build relationships with their future medical colleagues — via participants in the College of Medicine’s version of the program — as well as with future employers and mentors and with the communities that need their help most,” Chaney said.
“This interprofessional collaboration is an opportunity for young professionals to connect and bond in the rural communities that have traditionally been overlooked when it comes time for veterinarians and physicians to choose a professional home,” Mays said. “That’s huge. If they continue to stay in touch, perhaps they’ll be able to work together to bring both medical and veterinary doctors back to places that need them most.”
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Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of VMBS Today.
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 Twitter.
Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu; 979-862-4216
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