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

Tilikum - Man He Looks Great!

ZEW stands for Zoo, Exotics, & Wildlife - it's one of the clubs I'm a part of here at vet school.  If you know me at all, you'll know it's basically everything I could ever want in a club and I absolutely love it.  I've had some incredible opportunities to work with knowledgeable veterinarians who are willing to take time to teach us some pretty cool stuff.

So what is an exotics club like at a veterinary school?  Let me tell you.

A couple weeks ago, I got to attend ZEW's deantlering wetlab.  A&M has a Wildlife Center that allows us to get a chance at learning the management and medicine of non-domestic species.  It's pretty neat.  There is a herd of white-tail deer does and a few males separated from them for population control.  Every year as the bucks finish growing their antlers and shedding their velvet, the ZEW students get to help with deanterling.  Male deer use their antlers to fight each other and normally in the wild they can run away if those fights get intense.  That's not so much an option here at the wildlife center, so we remove their antlers every year to keep them from hurting each other.

We started out bringing one of the bucks named Buck (creative I know) into the restraint center which has these amazing catwalks to give you access above the stalls.  Dr. Blue darted him to get him his anesthesia and soon the procedure was underway.

Buck Before the Deantlering

In Physiology, we had just been learning about the muscarinic acetocholine receptors of the parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest one as opposed to the fight or flight one).  As Buck went deeper into anesthesia, his heart rate was slowing down (which is typical) so to keep his heart rate up where it needs to be we gave him some atropine - a muscarinic receptor blocker.  It was so cool to actually see the importance of what we had just learned a week before in class.  The parasympathetic system then couldn't further depress the heart rate and we were able to keep him stable and get the job done.  It was awesome.

And After.  He's still sleeping on the floor in this pic.

But the coolness doesn't end there.  I'm also a part of the Exotic Cat Team.  How cool does that sound? Taylor and I signed up to help take care of the two servals at the wildlife center.  SERVALS.  It's awesome. Their names are Morpheus and Camilla.

An African Serval Cat Who's Pretty Chill Like Morpheus

Morph tends to be pretty chill.  He mews a lot and likes to spray his enclosure basically all the time but he's definitely my favorite.  Camilla likes to remind us that Servals are not domestic kitties.  All the time. She likes to remind Morpheus of that too, but he just seems to ignore her.

Another Serval with a More Camilla-like Demeanor

Every morning and evening during the weeks we are on, Taylor and I meet up at the Wildlife Center to get them their food and to do some brief cleaning.  There are a series of doors we open and close to shift them around the enclosure so we can make sure they get their food separately (Cami will steal Morphs food if she gets the chance) and to make sure the whole enclosure is cleaned and that we are never in there with them. It totally reminds me of the back area of Asian Highlands at Utah's Hogle Zoo and gives me a little glimpse into how awesome being a cat keeper must be.

Yesterday was another of ZEW's awesome wetlabs.  After tending to Morpheus and Camilla at 7 a.m., I went straight over to school where I participated in some of the coolest labs and lectures.

From 8-10, I learned all about avian reproductive anatomy and how to perform a spay from Dr. Steve Fronefield from ABC - Animal & Bird Clinic.  Did you know that the Kiwi has the largest egg to body size ratio?  Well it does!  Check out this crazy image to give you a clue just what I mean.

Looks Uncomfortable to Me

Isn't that crazy?  They don't eat a few days before laying because they just can't!

After learning all about the anatomy, we got to go into the anatomy lab to practice our new surgery skills on some chickens after performing a brief necropsy.  It was really cool.  The yolk starts out on the ovary with the oocyte and then when the follicle ruptures, it travels down the uterine tube slowing forming the shell as it goes along (mostly around the shell gland right before the cloaca).

Crazy, Huh?

Then from 10-noon, I got to sit in on an awesome lecture on fish anesthesia.  I definitely had a leg up because of working at the Aquarium of the Pacific and in Dr. Johnson's Lab at BYU.

Mandarin Goby

Alison Wilkes, one of the PhD students at TAMU taught us all about it.  She also talked about a bunch of cool procedures that she is doing for her research.  She studies the role of iodine on thyroid tissue in fish by using high resolution PET/CT scans on fish injected with radioactive iodine to obtain 3D images of fish anatomy and iodine uptake.  It's pretty cool stuff.  Here's one of the pictures she took.



After a yummy lunch, I then got to attend a lecture on wildlife medicine and rehabilitation from Dr. Melissa Hill and John Karger from Last Chance Forever - a raptor rehabilitation facility located in San Antonio.  We learned all about donating our time and passion towards helping wildlife.  Whether it be a Barn Owl...


...or a Bobcat..


...or a Bald Eagle, they had something to teach us about that species' medical needs and rehabilitation.  It was incredible.


It really impressed upon me that no matter where I end up as a veterinarian that I will always have the opportunity and privilege to help with conservation efforts if I am willing to donate my time and resources to helping wildlife.  It also made falconry seem crazy awesome.

Then from 3-5 I was learning about sea turtles and their anatomy and conservation needs from the good doctors at the Texas Sea Life Center.  Do you know why the Green Sea Turtle is called the Green Sea Turtle?


It's actually because their fat is green.  The adults have a herbivorous diet that gives their adipose tissue a green color.  After learning all about chelonian anatomy, we got to go into the anatomy lab again to do necropsies on four young green sea turtles.  It was so cool.  Because of their shell, they don't need lots of muscles around their body wall.  So once you get inside it's basically really huge pecs and some glutes.  And that's about it for muscles.  Their lungs sit at the back of their carapaces and, like land turtles and tortoises, they breathe by moving.  As they do so, their muscles move around to expand the areas for the lung to fill.  It was really cool to see.

After that, we got to have a meet and greet with all the cool doctors (there were other classes going on besides the ones I took) and to do some networking.  Then it was back to taking care of Morph and Cami.

ZEW is awesome.  Vet school is one big adventure.  I love me some zoo medicine and I can't wait to play a bigger part in it!

All right guys.  I know that was a while.  But a whole lot went down since I last wrote last year.  That whole getting unengaged thing can be kind of a bummer.  So naturally I didn't really feel like writing and as a result, this place has been LAME.  Sorry about that.  Thankfully, lots of REALLY COOL EXCITING things have happened to me since then.  And I'm just going to have to catch you guys up on that as we go along.  So get ready. Here it comes.

First off, I graduated from BYU with Honors in Biology.  That was a long time comin, but I loved my time there and made some really great friends that will stick with me for a long time.

Secondly, this past summer I was hired as one of this year's Eco-Explorers at Utah's Hogle Zoo!  And I LOVED it!  There's something amazing about standing next to an adult African elephant or looking into the burning eyes of an Amur tiger that just gets your juices flowing.  As an Eco-Explorer, I had some amazing experiences with some of the coolest animals in the world.  And what was even cooler is that I got to share them with people and help them to see why these animals are important and what we can all do to help save them.  It was pretty awesome.  But since each of these experiences deserve their own post, they're gonna be coming interspersed with other posts from the other awesome life event that has happened since then - VET SCHOOL!

That's right.  I'm a first year veterinary student at the one and only Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  It's incredible.  Now that I'm here, living the dream, I can tell you that all those classes I took at BYU to fulfill every prerequisite of every veterinary school in the United States have been well worth it - and that they have truly pointed me towards my calling in life.  I love animals.  I love medicine.  This place is perfect.

I also got into North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Illinois.  But when I came here for my interview, I felt this is where I was supposed to go.  And now that I'm here, I can safely say that it pays to listen to the Spirit when He's prompting you!  God knows what He's doing and I'm grateful for my time here, what I've learned so far, and the friends that I've made.

So stay tuned.  It only gets better from here.

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As I read Chapter 11 of Lewi's Miracles, I couldn't help but draw connections to the world around me.  A number of my friends have left the religions of their families.  They "believe" but no longer "practice".  They are all about "God" but not "religion".  In reality they are about neither.

I love how Lewis describes the journey mankind takes to arrive at this position.  It begins with a notion that God really isn't a personage.  We remove any human connection we see in Him.  As bit by bit of Him is unraveled, we begin to worship a Great Nothing.

We feel good about it because this Nothing requires nothing of us.  That's how we justify that we can be all about God but not about religion.  By reducing Him to a Great Nothing, we are not required to take action.  We don't have to obey because He doesn't require anything of us and we don't have to accept the evolutionary humanist explanation of reality either.  The problem is that this mindset is just fence sitting.  The worship of that Great Nothing leads to a lifetime of nothing and a world without meaning.

I hadn't set down the book for more than ten minutes when I came across this article.  This is a problem today just as much as it was in Lewis's time.  Come on people.  Wake up and make a decision.

This blog started out as the Nature Journal for my Environmental Humanities class, and while it has expanded to encompass the other aspects of my life, that is always going to be an important part of what I write about here.  I know I haven't written in a while, but a lot has happened.  I've had a lot of time to think about how wonderful this planet is, how blessed we are to be here, and how important it is to be connected to it.

I had the opportunity to visit a turkey processing plant for my Animal Husbandry class and it was an eye-opening experience.  All too often we remove ourselves from what we are eating.  We use words like pork or beef to avoid using the name of the animal that gave its life for our use.  In a way it was kind of a spiritual experience for me.  I've found myself much more grateful for what I'm eating since then.

But we often remove ourselves from other aspects of our use of the planet.  The Lord has decreed that this planet was created for us, that it was for our use.  It's important that we take care of it though.  Now I'm not an advocate of extreme environmentalism.  I think it's as dangerous and disconnected from reality as is the extreme abuse of the land - but I think it's important that we find ways to use what's been given us in a healthy and sustainable manner.

And we're doing well!  It makes me proud that 80% of Fortune 500 Companies have sustainability departments.  Because in all honesty - they are the ones that are going to make the difference.  They are the keystone species for this planet.  These companies and groups like The Nature Conservancy are working together to find solutions that not only meet the companies needs but protect wildlife, limit pollution, and provide access to something as simple as fresh water to the residents of dozens of nations.

People all over are embracing the green movement and it's making a difference.  So keep it up.  There's still so much you can do.  Plant something!  Take a hike!  Participate in a cleanup!  Or just go see Chimpanzee!  Something as simple as watching a movie this week can make a difference in the world.  Find what works for you and do it.

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

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We all have our own memories of that day.  I was on my way to school when I walked into the family room and saw the second plane crash into the World Trade Center.  Every class I had that day had the TV on.  That day we were reminded that there is evil in this world.



When Osama Bin Laden was killed I remember being a little upset at just how happy everyone was at the death of another.  I think it was the separation from the event that ten years unfortunately bring.  But now at the commemoration of this tragic day, I too am glad that man responsible is no longer here to orchestrate terror and suffering.

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But more importantly than being reminded of the evil in the world, 9/11 reminded us that there is good in this world too.  There are heroes and saviors among us.  Great men and women gave their lives that day for others.

I've had some experiences in the last few weeks that have taught me a great deal about heroes.  Last week I watched my brother graduate as a Marine.  Seeing their courage and valor is awe-inspiring.  Today in Elder's Quorum, one of the guys I home teach had a seizure. The guys around him immediately sprung into action.  They cared for him, comforted him, and helped him as he came back from the seizure's delirium.  That is what a hero is - someone who acts without hesitation to save another in their moment of need.

That's what I want to be like.  I want to be prepared and capable of helping others at all times.  But more importantly I want to have the mindset to be looking continuously for that kind of service.  There is a group called 9/11 Day that is urging us to commit to making this world a better place as a tribute to those who lost their lives ten years ago.  Whether it's serving in the military, or something as simple as helping someone in need, let's make a commitment that we will do something to make this world a better place.  I know I will.

Panama City

I recently got back from another trip to Panama.  It was amazing.  I haven't uploaded any pictures from my camera yet or taken Spencer's, so I don't want to talk about what we were doing so much until I can show you what we did, but I wanted to write about some of the little things this trip got me thinking about.

This trip kind of reminded me of my mission.  The last one did too.  Here I was in a foreign country with a metropolitan city next to the ocean (sound familiar?) trying to understand (I wouldn't say learn because that sounds like too active of a verb) another language surrounded by some amazing people.  It was just me and Spencer and it sort of felt like a companionship.  He really is an awesome guy.

I think the moment the reminiscence hit me the hardest was in our collection in David, Panama.  Spencer went to talk to a man who owned the land that one of the tributaries we wanted to work in ran through.  The owner came out of his house and just started to talk with us.  He was in his sixties or seventies, and he was just the most amiable little guy I ever met.  He told Spencer all sorts of stories - about how a dinosaur had been discovered in Panama, how it was dug up, how the Americans stole it and put it in one of their museums, and all that he's been doing to get it back where it belongs.  And though I obviously didn't catch any of that until Spencer told me, I just couldn't help but be impressed by the goodness of this man.

Immediately I thought of all the people I taught on my mission, all the great members I became friends with, my companions, the other great missionaries I served with, and of course my great Mission President.  I thought of the wonderful people of Singapore and Malaysia.  I thought about what it feels like to just give yourself completely to serving a group of people.

It was some nice thinking. 

But it wasn't all retrospective.  These trips have taught me a lot about science, about moving forward and progressing.  The knowledge of evolution the members of my lab possess is incredible.  And that knowledge is growing every day.  Right now as you read this, people all across the world are making discoveries. But it's not just science that's changing.  Novels are being written, movies are being filmed, speeches are being given, and prayers are being answered.  One of my professors (my awesome Evolutionary Biology professor Byron Adams if you'd like to know) showed us a study that shows that the entirety of human knowledge doubles every nine years.  DOUBLES! Can you imagine that?!  That notion of progress is what keeps me going.  I wrote in the talk I gave in church a while ago that stagnation is uncomfortable.  But thankfully progression, discovery, and edification is so exhilarating.

Every night, Spencer talked with his wife and little baby through video chat, and it gave me a little glimpse of what's ahead and complete dedication to another amazing enterprise - family.  It looked amazing.  My nostalgic contemplations reminded me of giving myself completely to a cause and as I looked forward to what's to come hopefully within the next few years down the road it was clear that life is full of so many good ones.

Morrie Shwartz said, “So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

Let's find the right things and give them our all.

Works Cited