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Volunteering in the Small Animal ICU

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As a member of Ohio State’s PVMA (Pre-Veterinary Medical Association), I had the opportunity to volunteer in Ohio State’s Veterinary Clinic. I chose to work in the small animal ICU every Tuesday, from 9pm-10pm. I got to buy my first pair of scrubs (yay!) and went through training on what my job would entail, and the opportunities I would get. It was my job to keep the dogs and cats that were in the ICU company – to pet them, take them out, and calm them down when they were afraid. So, basically, cuddling dogs and cats for an hour every week. However, this volunteer opportunity became so much more than that.

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One of the first dogs I got to work with, a very cuddly puppy named Zelda.

This volunteer job became an incredible learning experience as someone who hopes to be a veterinarian one day. Through this job, I was able to learn how to read both the treatment logs kept by the cages, and the charts that were kept about the animals that were staying there. The veterinary technicians were always very nice and helpful, always wanting to help me understand what was going on. I also got to watch what the job of a vet technician entailed – mostly flushing out lines and delivering medicine, but there was also the technicians that helped the veterinarians and fourth year vet students as they dealt with a particularly difficult case, which was something that happened, unfortunately, more often than I (or any other animal lover) would like. However, while those difficult cases were sad and heart breaking to read on the treatment logs, it was incredible and eye opening to see how veterinarians and their vet students could look at the chart or the heart rate monitor and immediately know what to do to at least help this animal get help.

A very curious little dog who wanted nothing more than to sit in my lap!

A very curious little dog who wanted nothing more than to sit in my lap!

This opportunity taught me a few things about my future as a veterinarian. Definitely that I don’t have the emotional maturity yet of someone who can work all their shifts in the ICU – while it’s very different than a human ICU, it can be a really emotional place, where you see a lot of animals who are in really bad shape. But, that being said, it opened me up to the kinds of things I would potentially be seeing as I went through my own veterinary career in the Army Veterinary Corps, because a lot of the very serious cases were things like dog bites and fights between animals, which required a lot of great veterinarians who are good in a crisis. It also gave me a lot more animal experience with animals who aren’t always happy and feeling great, and to learn animal behavior when these animals are sick and hurt.

My 9pm to 10pm shift every Tuesday became my favorite hour of the entire week – because I was learning fascinating things, pushing myself to understand all the fancy veterinary jargon I haven’t had much experience with yet, and I got to cuddle up with some pretty adorable dogs and cats.

A very sweet pitbull who really just wanted to take a nap on my knee.

A very sweet pitbull who really just wanted to take a nap on my knee.

Skills Gained Through Scholars & Curricular Activities

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Being a part of the STEM Exploration and Engagement Scholars program has given me a number of transferable skills. STEM has taught me how to conduct in a professional manner, and how to talk about the skills I possess. STEM has also helped me to clarify my goals in the career I strive for, and how to be successful in the challenging classes I’ll be taking. My participation in OSU’s Pre-Veterinary Club has helped me to see where I want to take my career as a future veterinarian, and has helped me to see where I need to improve in my skills to be the best veterinarian I can be. My participation in Ohio State’s Beta Xi Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta has helped to improve my skills as a leader and as a member of team by working with my sisters throughout various projects and experiences.

My Strengths

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My top five strengths according to Strengths Finder are restorative, input, learner, responsibility and adaptability. Restorative makes me adept at dealing with problems, in terms of finding out what’s wrong and being able to fix it. Restorative also means that I spend my talents, energy, intelligence and time trying to fix myself to make myself the best that I can possibly be. Input means that I constantly crave knowledge, and I collect all kinds of information that I find fascinating. Learner means that I have a desire to constantly improve, and that the process of learning intrigues me rather than simply the end product. Responsibility means that I conduct myself in a proper and ethical manner to avoid feeling like I’ve done anything wrong, or someone who always plays by the rules. Adaptability means that I tend to go with the flow, and take things as they come, discovering my future one day at a time.

All of these can easily play a role in my everyday life. My strengths make me a quick learner, one who strives to continue on learning just because I’m fascinated by what’s going on. This is of course valuable in my life now as a student, because that’s the entire point of higher education. In my life outside of academics, these strengths are equally valuable because my strengths in responsibility and adaptability. Socially, these are good strengths to have, because they allow me to form relationships where others value the same things as I do. Once I form these relationships, my other strengths help me to be a good listener to my friends, since I crave to understand things and people, especially things I can’t understand, such as their emotions and anything else they want to talk about. While these strengths aren’t technically in the relationship forming theme of strengths, these are still valuable to have when it comes to forming relationships.

Knowing my strengths certainly supports my future goals to be a practicing veterinarian. To be a successful student by continuing into graduate or doctorate level education, you have to have the strength of lifelong learning. Having my strengths means that I love working through problems and am committed to a lifelong of learning, which is especially important in a field like medicine, where things are always changing and there are always problems to solve. Seeing these as my strengths made me believe that I could actually do what I wanted to do, since the entire process is a stressful and looming thought. Knowing that I have strengths which will be useful to me in my life long learning is a comforting thought, something to fall back on when things get hard. In this way, I can utilize my strengths for the rest of my life and career, because they are all geared towards learning for the sake of being the best veterinarian and person I could possibly be.

Welcome to my Honors & Scholars e-Portfolio

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This is the Honors & Scholars e-Portfolio for Katherine Marlette! I’m a Biology major with a pre-vet track, and after my four years as an undergrad at Ohio State, I hope to go on to veterinary school to become a practicing veterinarian. I haven’t decided whether I want to go into small or large animal medicine yet, but with time that will come! This e-portfolio will be a comprehensive picture of my learning experiences during my time at Ohio State, from things done within the classroom to experiences I have with the STEM EE Scholars, as well as experiences I have during various student organizations I am a part of.

Year in Review

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The first year of college is more than just the first year in the beginning of life outside of high school, it’s the largest growth you experience in a single year. In my first year at Ohio State, I became incredibly independent (mostly because I had to be, since I was 600 miles away from home) and grew as a person. I became more outgoing and confident, mostly out of necessity but regardless was an important change. As a student, I became more dedicated to my education, and learned how I learn best, and what studying actually entails. I learned through trial and error how to take notes, on how to prepare for exams, and how to do well in STEM classes. I learned these things about myself and a student through a combination of my scholars program, as well as the idea that I was all of a sudden on my own for the first time. Being on my own for the first time in my entire life, and that fosters incredible personal growth.

At the beginning of the academic year and my time as a STEM EE Scholar, I was incredibly shy, awkward, and used to very standardized and rigid education system. I really hated how a lot of my classes weren’t lecture based (how do you take notes if they aren’t given to you!?) and still felt super uncomfortable participating in group discussions during classes of 100 (okay, seriously though, aren’t you scared of all those people looking at you?!). However, throughout my first semester, and after failing to adapt several times, I started to enjoy not being lectured at for 55 minutes, and figured out how to pick out the important bits of information during a class where the notes aren’t displayed on the screen in front of you, and more importantly, how to take better notes when the notes are given to you. I even participated in maybe one class discussion, which was huge for someone who can barely talk to a group of more than three people without getting very anxious at all the people staring at me. I achieved academically, and made more friends than I ever thought someone as awkward and shy as me ever could.

Second semester I grew even more. I decided to go through formal recruitment for Panhellenic Greek life, which was hilarious for everyone involved because I had absolutely no experience or knowledge about what Greek life even entailed, and even less knowledge that Panhellenic sororities aren’t even the only kind. However, after the emotionally draining process of recruitment, I received a bid from Gamma Phi Beta, whose philanthropic mission is “building strong girls”. This was huge for me – not only because I whole-heartedly believe that building strong and confident girls starts in elementary school, where we volunteer, but I wanted so badly to be that strong girl. Gamma Phi has already helped me to become strong and confident – I participate in class discussions more often now, and I’m not afraid to go up to anyone and compliment them, or start a conversation. My sisters are pushing me to take on leadership roles within our chapter, and I finally feel like I won’t pass out if I have to address all 205 of my sisters at once. But, Gamma Phi isn’t the only reason and way I really grew in my second semester. I started taking my academics more seriously, and I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life, and FINALLY recognized that college is nothing like high school. I stopped being afraid of going to office hours and tutoring rooms and asking for help when I needed it, and that boosted my grades and comprehension. I was no longer scared to go to the library, which was a weird freshman thing I was afraid of, and I spent most of my time there. I got better at managing my time because I had so much to do all the time, I figured out how to effectively give myself free time to get my mind off school.

All in all, my first year in college helped at least start to form me into the person I always wanted to be – confident, driven, mature and open minded. I stopped being so scared all the time (and replaced that with being stressed all the time, but that’s college). I never thought this was something that could happen to me in just nine months, but I feel like a completely different person in the best kind of way.

G.O.A.L.S.

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The University Honors & Scholars Center has five pillars which they hope that each student will experience as they go through their program: global awareness, original inquiry, academic enrichment, leadership development, and service engagement. The hope is that each student will gain experience and knowledge in these five areas as they go through their chosen honors or scholars program. Global awareness is focused on examining what being a global citizen really entails, and is to be achieved by enrolling coursework that has an “international focus”, whether that be studying abroad, research, work and student organizations which cultivate and develop appreciation for diversity and the unique differences and experiences that each person brings to the table. Original inquiry is focused on understanding the research process by putting oneself through experiences in research or in class endeavors. Academic enrichment is the pursuit of academic excellence through a combination of rigorous course loads and curricular experiences outside the classroom. Leadership development is focused on the development of leadership skills through classroom activities, community experiences, co-curricular activities and being able to apply these skills to future roles in society. Service engagement is focused on a commitment to service to the community, and engaging in a variety of service opportunities which connect to their major or area of interest whenever possible.

For my own future professional and personal goals, leadership development and service engagement. These two facets in particular speak to me because they are large components of what my future job will entail. I hope to be a veterinarian for the Army Veterinary Corps. Any role in the military will require leadership skills, because of the sheer nature of what the military is. As Army Veterinary Corps, I would enter the service as a second lieutenant, and that means that leadership must already be one of my strongest skills before my enlistment. Being a part of the armed forces means that my leadership skills will continue to grow throughout my time as part of this organization, and that leadership must remain an active interest in my life. This facet in particular is important to me because I feel like the current culture of education and academics is focused on being as well rounded as possible, and doing as many things as you can to show whoever is looking at your application or resume that you did all these things and also maintained a good GPA, and that because of that, things like leadership skills have largely taken a backseat in importance while in school. This leaves people who are very poor leaders being placed in leadership positions they aren’t prepared for, and I don’t want that to be me. I want to develop my leadership skills as much as I can while I can fail and not have that be a major detriment to my career. And to continue to make those kind of leadership mistakes while I can still learn from them, but before the life of someone’s pet is at stake.

Service engagement is also a huge part of my goals, both professionally and personally. Giving back to the community has always been stressed in my family, and something that we try to do as often as we can. I have gained a lot of experience of the administrative side of service engagement by serving on the board of donors for a foundation, and recently have started to get more experience on the physical side of it – actively volunteering in my community to make a difference. I continued this in college by my service engagement through scholars, through the pre-veterinary club, and through my sorority, all three of which were we actively give back to the community as often as we can. I really love the act of volunteering as it is, but it is immensely more enjoyable and feels like less of a chore because I am so passionate about the volunteer work that I do. Professionally, it is a large component of veterinary medicine to be giving back in one way or another – whether volunteering in a shelter, or helping with the country wide epidemic of animals who aren’t spayed or neutered. It is a professional norm, and therefore so incredibly vital to what my job will entail. Also, working in the armed forces has a huge component of volunteer work and giving back to the community, and especially as a member of the AVC. It will continue to be a large part of my life throughout my career and personal life, and that’s incredibly important to me.

About Me

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I’m a self proclaimed world traveler from Grafton, Massachusetts who is really terrible about talking about herself! I’m an avid sports fan, especially soccer and football, so I guess it’s good that I chose Ohio State! Sports dominated my life in high school, between playing field hockey and running track and watching games with my family. Track was my main sport, I was a hurdler, and running was how I dealt with frustration. Without track, I don’t know how I would deal with frustration, so I guess I owe a lot to track! However, traveling is my true passion. Traveling has exposed me to so many beautiful places in the world, as well as allowing me to experience cultures and people different from my own. So far in this lifetime, I’ve traveled to Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Sicily, Italy, Mexico, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Haiti, and of course nearly all of the states in the United States! Next on my list to travel to are Prague and hopefully to travel more through of Eastern Europe. My last great passion is music. What I’m listening to depends entirely on my mood, but I love almost every genre! I spent a lot of time on the weekends at the venues near home, and the people and bands there helped shape me into the person I am today. It seems strange to think that music could have influenced me to become the person I am, but I learned so much from the people singing about their own lives.

My public school experience was fairly typical. I went to a small school in my town, where my graduating class was 160 kids and my school never had more than 800 kids in it at any time. This had many perks, since I had access to one on one time with teachers and all the lab equipment and resources we could ask for, which made me super fortunate. I had always liked to be challenged, to struggle. I always pushed myself to take the hardest classes my school offered, and to do as many of those as humanly possible. While those classes were challenging in a sort of fun way, I always struggled with math. Math would make sense in the hypothetical, but once a problem was put in front of me, all bets were off. However, now that I’m moving on with my educational career, I’m glad I struggled, and continue to struggle, with something. It helped teach me how to push through things, and most importantly, when I reach the point where I need to ask for help!

I’ve always been into science, ever since I was little. My parents, especially my dad, always pushed my brother and I to question the world around us, which lead to many questions like, “How do airplanes fly?” and “Why do we have to breathe oxygen?”. When my dad grew tired of answering our questions, he would have us call our grandfather, who was also an engineer. Popeye never tired of endless and seemingly random questions, and he always wanted us to continue questioning. My dad continued to foster this need for scientific inquiry, from doing science experiments in our kitchen to buying us a circuitry kit, he wanted us to love science the way he did. He pushed me to work harder in classes, and at the time, I assumed that no grade I got would ever be good enough, but now I’m seeing that he just wanted me to keep pushing myself. My mother, on the other hand, helped me pursue my love for animals. She volunteered with me at animal shelters, pushed me to try horse back riding, which became the highlight of my week. I’ve cleaned out more cages and stalls than I like to think about, but it was an awesome experience for me, and it continued my love for animals. However, my AP Biology teacher also played a large role in me deciding that I wanted to actually go into science. I struggled with AP Biology, a lot, and Mrs. Bailey was pushing me whether I aced a test or tanked a lab, she wanted me to do better. Without her, I’m sure I would have given up on science and done something I thought was less challenging, which is definitely a decision I would have regretted. I’ve wanted to be a veterinarian since I was a little girl, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

When I began the college process, one of the particularly intriguing things about Ohio State was the scholars program. When I saw the word STEM, I was immediately intrigued. Getting to live with kids with loved science as much as me and getting to participate in activities about science outside of class? Sign me up! It ended up being one of the deciding factors in choosing Ohio State – the scholars program is an amazing opportunity, and access to experiences that otherwise would be a mystery to me. I’m so incredibly excited to be a part of an amazing group of people, and to do some amazing things over the next two years.

As a parting note, I am so incredibly excited to officially be an Ohio State Buckeye, and I can’t wait to see what this year brings me!