This past week, I have been privileged to participate in the 12th annual Veterinary Leadership Experience through the Veterinary Leadership Institute.  This week has been phenomenal.  The goal of the program is to allow veterinarians and veterinary students the opportunity to take a step back from everyday life to do some self reflection and to learn about leadership styles that may differ from their own.  The result is an transformative experience that allows you to step off the busy treadmill of life and look inside yourself, redefine who you are, and return back to your daily life with a new outlook and a new set of skills to revolutionize the world around you.

VLE takes place at Ross Point Baptist Camp in beautiful Post Falls, Idaho.  The scenery is absolutely beautiful and serves as the perfect backdrop for the transformations that take place within us as we reflect on ourselves and our leadership styles.  Led by John and Fay Batchelder, this great facility and staff work hard to provide an environment for growth, fun, and learning.  If you're considering a team-building experience or camp, you should definitely check out Ross Point.

It has been so incredible to be with a group of professionals and students who are committed to looking within themselves to see what they can do better to be a leader.  Everyone here was simply fantastic and I have made some friends that I will have for life.  We were divided into groups and I was fortunate to be placed in the wonderful Group 7 - Team Septapus.  With our wonderful facilitators, Glennon Mays and Fay Batchelder, we were unstoppable.  We even adopted Glennon's mustache as our team mascot and all the guys shaved their beards to be Stachetastic.  I learned so much from this group of people and I know I've got some lifelong friends here.


This experience has been incredible and has really changed the way I think about interacting with people. We spent a lot of time talking about our Meyer's Briggs preferences.  The MBTI is a test that assesses your preferences in situations and places you in a category of people with similar preferences.  And while some studies have shown that the boxes the test places you in aren't necessarily accurate, there is real power in understanding where you fall on each spectrum and how you can be more accomadating to people whose preferences differ from your own.  If you haven't taken the test you can take a version of it HERE.  People really do have different ways of viewing the world and this is just one way to be self-aware in your interactions with others.  As we talked about this in our small group, it was clear that these preferences really do matter to people and that we should take everybody's preferences into account when working in a group setting.

Every morning we'd meet to discuss important aspects of leadership - from understanding our MBTI preferences, to conflict resolution, self-assessment, and effective communication and listening, we covered just about every aspect in effective leadership.  It was amazing.  Dr. Betsy Charles showed us so many wonderful videos and took us through some amazing activities and I just wanted to share some of them.

One of my favorites is the concept of Lollipop Moments - profound moments of leadership we may not even be aware are going on.  Every single one of us has the potential to change the world for somebody else - we just have to be willing to try.  To learn more about what I'm talking about check out this TED Talk:

The Bid Team

It was such an incredible honor to serve in the Student American Veterinary Medical Association's House of Delegates this past weekend.  There is no other group of dedicated students quite like it.  I sat in awe at everything we accomplished - from amending the bylaws of this great organization to creating two new task forces to address representation of satellite campuses and to investigate the wellness and mental health of veterinary students everywhere.

My favorite part of the weekend had to be Friday.  Elections for the SAVMA Executive Board were competitive and inspiring.  I ran for President-Elect and felt honored that I had the attention of the room as I discussed the importance of mental health and wellness in veterinary schools and our need to improve it.  But I felt incredibly enlightened as I listened to other candidates speak.  Here were these amazing four candidates running for the same office.  And EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was inspiring.  Each came to the table with their own unique message and vision for the office and each of them was worth electing.  The House ended up selecting Mr. Matt Holland from the University of Illinois and I couldn't be more proud of SAVMA's future.  Matt is an incredible individual who will lead with strength and humor and I am excited to get behind him as we press on in this great organization.

I am passionate about improving the mental health of veterinary students so I was still honored to move to create a mental health task force. This new task force will survey the current status of students across the country and assess what assistance is available to students and recent graduates facing issues of depression.  It was touching how many people came up to me afterwards, eager to help with the task force, wanting to truly make a difference for veterinary students.  SAVMA is full of great people, y'all.

The elections for the elect offices of International Exchange Officer, Veterinary Economics Officer, and Global Health Officer were equally competitive and equally inspiring.  This new Executive Board Elect will be leading SAVMA to great places, I have no doubt about that.

Now on to the Bid.  Caitlin Conner and I have worked for a year on our Bid to host SAVMA Symposium in 2017.  And I mean worked hard.  I can't tell you how many hours we have spent in front of our computers designing our PowerPoint and our written proposal or how many people we have contacted to make sure this can all happen.  We practiced our presentation several times just during the Symposium so that when it came time to present for the House of Delegates, we would be ready.  And it DID!  The presentation went flawlessly.  It was honestly the best we had ever done and I am so grateful for the prayers on our behalf and the endless support we received from our administration and our classmates.

We are incredibly pleased to announce that Texas A&M will in fact be hosting in 2017!!!  The support and kind comments we received from our colleagues in the House were so uplifting after all the work we had done.  The University of Pennsylvania also put in an incredible bid to host in Philadelphia and we hope they bid again because a Symposium in Philly really would be so awesome.

I am so proud of the fact that Texas A&M regularly has four generations of Delegates represented in SAVMA.  I'm proud of everything Ricci has accomplished as president and I can't wait to throw my support in for #Karkula2025.  Stephen has been a regular support and source of humor as Caitlin and I have worked for this Bid.  Caitlin is seriously the best little anybody could ever hope to have.  And Dr. Rogers has been like a rock for Caitlin and I.  I can't tell you how many times this incredible woman has inspired us, encouraged us, and hugged us as we worked on this project.  She is wonderful.

If any of you have any doubts about the future of veterinary medicine, all you need to do is sit in on a few hours of the SAVMA House of Delegates meetings and you will be convinced that the future is in good hands.  Because when we SAVMA, we SAVMA HARD!

Texas A&M SAVMA Representation

This was an incredible trip.  I was lucky enough to go with my awesome friend Brittni East and we got to do so much fun stuff together!

The AAZV conference was held at Disney's Animal Kingdom this year, so Brittni and I went early the weekend before it started so we could hit up the rides!  We got to go to every park and there were barely any lines.

People thought we were engaged and it was funny

 Brittni and I also helped each other out at the Student Reception.  We got to talk to a wide range of zoos and aquariums with externships and we both secured positions for the summer.  Brittni is going to be working at White Oak Conservation Center in Florida and I am going to be working with the Fort Worth Zoo and the Summer Research Program!  This is how we felt about it:


The last day we were at the conference was the Zoo day.  So we got to go to the one park we hadn't visited yet:  Animal Kingdom.  We got a behind the scenes tour of the animal care and veterinary facilities and got to have a ton of fun in the park.  AAZV rented out the park for us to use that night, so we got to ride the rides over and over with no lines whatsoever.  They also fed us this delicious dinner and there was face painting, and a fun auction to close out the night.

Today was my last day at Utah's Hogle Zoo. The friendship and mentorship I've received during these last two years are invaluable to me. I'm extremely grateful to countless keepers, veterinary staff, and of course the visitor experience team for all you have taught me and the friendship you have given me. It has been an honor to work alongside those so committed to education, conservation, and animal care and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors as we all strive to make this world a better place.

I was honored to be elected to serve as the Junior SAVMA Delegate for Texas A&M back in November and since then I have been privileged to attend both the SAVMA Symposium in Fort Collins and the AVMA Convention in Denver representing my school.


Just so we can clear up any confusion with these acronyms - AVMA is the American Veterinary Medical Association and SAVMA is the Student AVMA.

I have got to tell you that there are no better people than those in the SAVMA House of Delegates. They are all incredible and I love working with these people.  It's fun being able to help the schools and students out through our various scholarships and grants and being able to bring real issues affecting students to the attention of the AVMA.


I was also fortunate to be trusted to chair SAVMA's Educational and Professional Development Committee and my committee is the best.  I can't wait to work with these guys and helps students out all over the country!

SAVMA Symposium is also a ton of fun.  The Delegates have a blast and all the students do too! The evening events are great and the educational and networking opportunities Symposium provides can't be obtained anywhere else!



The best part though?  It has to be roll call.  Take a look to see what I mean.

But the best part was definitely going shark diving!  We went with Marine Dynamics - a group of scientists that study Great White Sharks and use the money they make from cage diving to fund their studies.  It was great we were able to have such a cool experience and fund important research at the same time.


But mostly it was just pure awesome.  These sharks are HUGE!  I thought it would be scary, but it was just amazing the whole time.  Poor Caro got a little bit seasick, but once we were in the water with these incredible animals it was all better!

Linda had a GoPro with her and she got some incredible footage of our experience with the sharks!

It was finally our turn to work on the coolest animals out there.  We were ecstatic!


Our very first immobilization was on four Cape Buffalo bulls.  Cape Buffalo in South Africa harbor many of the diseases that could cripple domestic cattle production like foot and mouth disease, brucellosis, tuberculosis, and theileria. Our plan was to get them down and then to get the testing done as soon as possible.  But the buffalo had other plans.  Two of them fell into the watering hole while the drugs took effect.  That meant we had to run in and hold their heads up so they wouldn't drown.  Unfortunately, that also meant I slipped and fell into an acacia tree and got covered in thorns. Somehow with everything going on, we still managed to get the testing done and wake them up in a decent amount of time.  The thorn story is a pretty funny one and I actually won best submission to the Student American Veterinary Medical Association's publication The Vet Gazette for it so you should go read it and laugh by clicking here.



Our next immobilization was on with zebras.  We needed to relocate two female zebras from Amakhala to a nearby game ranch.  So we set out looking for them and found a herd with some red hardebeest.  It didn't take long for us to dart the first one.  But when we got to her, it turned out she was lactating.  We didn't see a foal with her when we darted her so we did a quick preg check.  Turns out she had a baby somewhere out there so we woke her up and went back to lookin.  We finally got our two ladies down and loaded into the truck for them to head to their new homes.  We definitely learned a few things with these immobilizations - tracking a zebra running through a herd of stripes is difficult and even though Mike is big he can't be the only person on one side of the stretcher to lift the zebra into the truck.




Our next immobilization was with Cape Buffalo again, but this time with seven cows and a young calf.  These girls had already had their testing done, so they were on their way to their new home. We split up into several groups so we could get it done quickly.  And just like the zebras, we had to move them manually and in case you are wondering, yes, Cape Buffalo are very heavy.




Our next immobilization was a bitter-sweet one.  We set out to capture six nyala bulls for translocation.  But when we went to move the animals to one side of the boma (this one was ginormous), one of the females spooked and jumped into the fence and cut herself pretty good.  After getting the males loaded (which was so cool - these animals are awesome), we found the female and darted her so we could get a look at her wounds.  They were pretty extensive so Dr. Brothers and Dr. Blue got to work suturing her up.  Unfortunately she was under just a bit too long, and didn't come out of the anesthesia.  Nyala are very sensitive animals and we just weren't fast enough.  But it was amazing seeing Dr. Brothers do all he could to resuscitate her.



Our next immobilization was with Black Rhinos!  Everything we had been doing was leading up to this moment.  Black Rhinos are extremely endangered, and the preserve we worked on is the source of approximately a third of the total population of these amazing animals.  Our goal was to immobilize two mothers and their calves to notch the calves ears so they could be easily identified by rangers on their anti-poaching rounds.  We also placed microchips in the horns and the nuchal humps of the animals.  If any of those animals were to be poached, their horns could be traced to the poaching incident so the poachers could be charged with poaching and not just possession of a horn.

The rhinos were huge.  One of the babies went down in an acacia tree (of course) and we had to lift him out.  At just a year old he felt nearly as heavy as some of the cape buffalo cows.  The rhinos were also much softer than the White Rhinos at Hogle Zoo but they're skin was just as tough.  You had to full on whack that needle in there to give them their injections.


When we woke them up, one of the mothers charged us.  Her name is Julia and apparently she doesn't like cars so everybody who works there wasn't surprised but we sure were!
After we finished working on these amazing rhinos, there was such a feeling of gratitude.  Here we were working on one of the most endangered and protected animals in Africa.  It was wonderful to know that our course fees funded the great work we did there that day.

But the day wasn't over yet!  We went and helped examine a Cape Buffalo cow who had recently aborted and now had a uterine infection.  And then...we practiced darting again.  But this time we were in helicopters and our target was Dr. Brothers' truck!  Best day EVER!



Our next immobilization was on a black wildebeest.  We needed to get two caught up for translocation.  That is easier said then done.  In order to dart an animal, you need to get within 30 meters of that animal so wind won't blow your dart off course.  But every time we would get within 35 meter, the herd would run off.  It took us a couple hours to get one, and we didn't get the second before the sun set.  But these animals are cool.  They've got these weird frilly nose tufts, a mane and a tail like a horse, and some cool looking horns.  They're definitely way cooler looking than the blue wildebeest that are much more common.



Our last immobilization was with giraffe.  And as far as the way it is done, this one definitely is the coolest.  We needed a bull and two cows to be relocated to another park.  We would get close to the giraffes, Dr. Brothers would dart them, and then if they took too long to go down, they would need to be tripped.  Giraffes are extremely sensitive to the anesthetics we use and if they are not reversed fast enough, they can die from them.  So it is important to get them on the ground and restrained as fast as possible to reverse them.

Once they are down, a group of five or so lie on the giraffe's neck, a blindfold and harness are put on, and cotton is stuffed in the giraffes ears.  Then the animal is reversed.  After that, you place ropes around the giraffe's legs.  Once those are in place, everyone jumps back and the giraffe gets to its feet.  From there you use the ropes around its legs to push and guide it into the trailer.  It was the coolest thing ever and the perfect end to the perfect trip.