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