One of the opportunities presented to kids interested in Vet-med is the Vet Exploration Day presented by OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. The day ran from 9:00 to 5:00 pm in the academic buildings and hospital on the Vet campus.
The day started out with a presentation from Tony Wynne, the director of the VMCAS, Veterinary Medical College Application Services. The presentation, while informative was less than meaningful. A reminder to college students to make sure all their application materials are submitted by the deadline is seemingly unnecessary. After Mr. Wynne’s presentation, a Q&A complete with a panel of current OSU vet students was conducted. This provided a helpful insight to what the interview process was like and what students saw as pros and cons of the program. Tips and tricks were given before us hopefuls went off to tour the hospital!
Most vet hospitals look the same. Sterile rooms, surgical wings, radiology departments, and large animal holding spaces. OSU was no different. Much of the small animal spaces were under renovation and other spaces off limits; what we were able to see was limited. After the conclusion of the tour we had lunch and split into smaller groups for wet labs. I signed up for suture & hand ties and necrospy.
Suturing, basically fancy skin sewing with forceps and tweezers, and hand tying was very hands on and we were able to practice the skills the students taught us on our own. It was very social and I enjoyed talking to other perspective students about their interests and past experiences. There are so many different pathways into vet med and hearing people’s experiences with exotics was so interesting! Necropsy was next. Necropsy is essentially a fancy word for animal autopsy. We examined about 20 organs from multiple species including camels! Some of the organs were healthy and contained normal tissue while others were diseased and it was our job to determine 1. what organ it was 2. if it was diseased and 3. what was the disease or cause of death. It is so interesting what you can tell about the life and death of an animal by simply looking at a portion of the liver or lung!
Overall, I enjoyed the wet lab portion of the day and appreciated the opportunity to gain new skills and meet new people. Going to OSU and being a scholar provide me with many chances to become a well rounded individual with diverse experiences and I think Vet Exploration Day helped provide me with a new and fun experience!
(Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures at any point of the day.)