Animal Aspirations: Hi everyone, welcome back to the Animal Aspirations Podcast. A podcast sharing conversations between veterinary students, professionals and people working in animal-related careers. Our goal is simple, to educate, inspire and diversify the veterinary profession. Today we're joined by Grace, a vet student, and she'll be talking about her journey into veterinary medicine and a bit about her background. So let's get into it. So, what year and program are you in? I'm in the BVET Med program and I'm a year three student. Can you tell us a little bit about your life before vet school Sure. So prior to coming to vet school I was in the Navy for nine years, granted four of which were in the United States Naval Academy. So that's my undergrad and the circumstances were a little bit more confined versus joining the actual military on the fleet where I served as a service warfare officer, which is really just fancy language for saying that I was an officer on a service warfare ship. So that's quite a transition. It's been a transition. How do you think that working in the Navy has prepared you for vet school? Being in the Navy taught me how to operate calmly under really stressful situations as well as discipline. resiliency. yeah, ⁓ amazing. So influenced you to start a career in veterinary medicine coming from a very career before that? I'd say actually into the Navy was a little bit off track of where I originally was, would have seen my life trajectory. In high school, actually up in general. I always thought that I would pursue some Avenue of Medicine. However, I decided to go to the Naval Academy and from there. once you go to the naval Academy, you have to serve an obligatory minimum five years depending on which service you decide to go into. So I was a warfare job, so that was a minimum of five years. And at the time I saw as sort of my extent of being in the military and then that I would transition out of the military and pursue medicine once again. Okay, so how was that transition when you started to go to vet school? Was it difficult to transition between the military to vet school? Transitioning specifically from the workforce, military, back as a student, I didn't think... that specifically was very difficult. But for me, what was challenging was learning how to be a student after 10 years, mainly because of how much technology actually had changed. Because when I did my undergrad, just had laptops. We didn't have iPads. Teachers didn't give us lectures. So you just had to codes. ⁓ So you had to show up with your pen and paper and a spiral, you know the spiral book yeah. So, and you just had to write down everything that you could while it's up there and you just pray that hopefully your friend got the notes that you didn't get. So ⁓ how to be a student with iPads and lectures, that was a transition for me. But I think it ultimately made me a better student because I learned more about. active recall and space repetition so it really transformed how I began to study and I also am lucky because lucky in a way um because after graduating naval Academy I didn't have all the required classes to apply to vet school in the US so I had to do up to about two and a half years of prerequisite coursework where I got to practice all these new ways of learning before I actually started. Yeah, so like a little crash course. Exactly. Yeah. So said you're always interested in medicine. What like decided what made you decide to follow the veterinary medicine route The first job I ever wanted to pursue as a child was to be a vet. And I witnessed euthanasia that I thought to myself, I can't do this. And so I switched more towards the medicine route. so after the military, when I was taking my classes as a postgrad I was also still working in a shark research lab in Hawaii, because again, like my love for conservation, doing a lot of projects on the island for in wildlife. and someone had asked me, why am I pursuing human med if I love observation and I could marry the two interests together and pursue that. And it made me reflect back on euthanasia as a child and thinking that I couldn't do that. But I wanted to explore the option a little bit more. I started shadowing veternarians and revisiting euthanasia. was able to move past the sadness that euthanasia brings and more about the compassion and empathy that euthanasia brings and that was pivotal moment for me to be able to reopen the door to vet Definitely euthanasia is like, I mean it's a heavy topic within vet med for sure and I think that's really admirable that you took the time to like look back at that, especially because it led you to your future career now too. Did you have any vets that were particularly helpful with discovering that? Yes, absolutely. Because one of the first clinics where I worked at, I was still really struggling with euthanasia and it wasn't until I met... Dr. Her name is Melissa Chanas. Big shout out to her. She's absolutely incredible. And she was the one who really transformed my outlook on euthanasia. It's something that she is very passionate about. And she's actually gone on, I met her as an emergency veterinarian but she's now gone on to become a hospice care doctor She goes to people's homes and actually helps them transition. their sick. how you think that that experience has shaped the way that you want to be a vet It's really helped me understand how much compassion it takes to make the difficult decision to go with euthanasia. And I think as a future veterinarian, being able to be there for the owners of these patients. really reassured that this may be the kind of thing that can do for them. Amazing. Did anyone else in your life play a bigger role in that they've steered you towards in veterinary medicine veterinary medicine as a whole, not so much, but my mom has been a very influential figure in pursuing medicine. She is a physician, but she didn't start medical school until she was 39 with two young children. That's very inspiring, especially because now I've started vet school at the age of 30. So if my mom did it almost a decade later, then where I started, it's been a great inspiration. And also because when she was in medical school, they used to have these family days where you bring your family and they had all sorts of activities and one of the activities was to suture a pig foot. That's kind of strange for kids, but that was what really sparked my love for medicine and wanting to pursue surgery. remember after that first experience, asked my mom when is the next family day. What are you currently enjoying about vet school? ⁓ goodness, so many things. Hands down. What I love about vet school is that we get to learn material that is actually applicable to us. Yeah. And it's so I for a lot of us who have previous degrees, especially from the US, we are required to take a lot of ⁓ prerequisite Yeah, like general education classes. Yes, exactly. And I remember. at least for math and English and stuff like that. Yes, those were the classes that I ended up spending the most amount of time on because they just weren't as interesting to me. So I always have to spend more time. Awesome. So now that we get to really just learn all of the information that's so valuable to our futures as veterinarians, just think that's. so interesting and also we have the most incredible professors. They're all brilliant and it's truly an honor sometimes when I'm sitting there in class, I have this opportunity to be a part of. Yes. Is there like a certain topic that you've enjoyed learning about so far? I really love all of our surgery and... that's really cool. think that's probably the top. Really, all of this is really fascinating. Even in the areas that I don't necessarily see myself in, it's so cool to see all of these professors who are so passionate about it, that it makes me actually excited. Yeah, it rubs off on us. What about challenges with vet school? I think the biggest challenge for me is I face imposter syndrome a lot more than I would like to admit. There's just so much content and it feels like not enough time, especially because it's not only from the academic side of wanting to be a good student, but because the information learning hopefully make us a better veterinarian to our future patients. So when it feels like there's just too much to actually fully grasp, that's the biggest challenge. How do you try to combat that impostor syndrome? For me personally, I have to ⁓ constantly remind that no one can know everything just to try my best and ⁓ know that time ⁓ with more repetition of seeing material and also ⁓ And you're here. You made it to vet school. So I think that's like a huge step that we tend to take for granted. Like we know that that's a natural progression, right? If you get into vet school, you become the vet, but it's like that you can be proud of that, you know? Yeah. Do you think like your expectations of vet school have matched like the reality when you joined? My expectations have easily been surpassed. It has just been phenomenal. The material is really difficult, but again, the content that we're learning, the professors that we have, and the experiences that we have as well. It's almost indescribable to most of us when I think about it. mean, even last year, when we were doing a lot more dissection work, a lot of times during dissection, I would just almost be in awe with the opportunities that we have. It's just amazing. How are you staying grounded in vet school? meditation, which I'm sure that a lot of people in our cohort wouldn't be surprised to hear. you tell us a bit more about your meditation? Definitely. So every day I practice meditation, there's so much science behind the benefits of meditation. I highly recommend looking into it more if you're interested. And also with yoga. So that's been a passion of mine for over a decade now. both as a practitioner as well as a teacher. So finding the divide to be able to do both of those is actually quite easy because when you really love something, make time for it. So I guess that of segues into my next question about how you're maintaining this word-life balance. it is challenging at times. Last year, for example, I was teaching between eight to 12 classes, think, sometimes 16 classes a week. This year because of the commuting difference, I've had to reduce down to about four to six classes a week, but it definitely can feel challenging at times. for me, I find. a lot of freedom in routine and scheduling, which might sound a little bit counterintuitive, but when I have my schedule in front of me and I've blocked out certain blocks of time for it's a worrying way to work out, this is what I'm going to do yoga. These are the classes that I have to teach this week. sleep so And sleep on sleep! No, I don't. Do you teach in uni or is more like a business? I currently teach out in town. So I teach across four or five different studios. And I have permanent classes, which ⁓ are the same time every week. then covered classes. So we have off from uni, then I might pick up some extra classes or weekends What medicine do you want to pursue after graduation? you thought about that? I'm really torn between maybe pursuing a residency in a surgical specialty or emergency medicine or mixed animal ⁓ we're everything open. know like I mean people end up changing their mind within their career too it's like we have so much opportunity I think that that is really possible. Yeah, that is really nice. One of the biggest reasons that I think someone should pursue vet med is that it is all of the different avenues that you're going to pursue at the beginning. ⁓ Thinking about your younger self, what's one piece of advice you would tell your younger self that would have been really helpful to you? I would say If I were to go back in time, I would look at my CV and see where I could use improvement because everything on the CV is pretty much applicable to that support in some capacity. So on your CV, if you have... you have your work experience, you have your education, and then you also have potentially research as well. So for me, where I was really lacking coming to vet school was clinical experience, again, because I was more so on the human medicine route. and during COVID, it was really hard to get that clinical experience. So, and I see that. playing out for me in real time now because when we're learning a lot of material in our didactic studies, it's hard for me to put to context what a lot of people, a lot of my classmates who have a lot of experience, they're able to say, yeah, I know that medication, it's used for this this this! Whereas I'm just having to look at black and white, essentially trying to memorize this medication is for this. So for me, it would have been more clinical experience. But if you are someone who maybe don't have any research experience, you're looking at your and you're like there's no research experience maybe try to find some research because your university might require it. Yeah that's really helpful advice. How about looking more general advice for people that ⁓ aren't specifically veterinary medicine? I would say Never lose sight of your passions and hobbies because you need to have a separation between being a student and being a human. maintaining your hobbies, maintaining your passions, ⁓ getting some movement ⁓ some capacity, whatever that looks like for you. Nice. And finally, do you think it's important for people to see that you don't need to have the traditional path to vet school? I would say that having a non-traditional path to vet school has given opportunities that I don't think I would have ever had if I went straight into vet school. ⁓ And also helped me build more well-rounded and unique CV, which I think probably helped me in being accepted into vet school So that's really great that you were able to show them that. Thank you. We've got a little rapid fire question round. ⁓ Are you ready? What from the Navy has you as a vet student? Having discipline. Would you say that Navy ship or the vet clinic is more chaotic I'd say being in the Navy is more chaotic don't think I've seen so far. you could take one animal on a Navy mission, what would it be? dog, hands down dog, automatic happiness to everybody on the What surprises people most about going from Navy to vet med? I think because most people know me as a yoga teacher. No, yeah. It's really hard for them to ever picture me as being in the military, which I understand. that's right. ⁓ one thing that always cheers you up after a long day? Seeing my dog. Book smart or hands-on learning? Hands-on learning. So thank you Grace for joining our podcast and thank you to our listeners To learn more about Animal Aspirations and the work that we do, please check out our website at animalaspirations.com. And don't forget to follow the podcast so you don't miss out on future episodes. Educate, inspire, diversify. so what advice would you give young people who are trying to pursue that vet currently? I know that getting into vet school can be really hard and statistics aren't great. So my best recommendation is to one, don't give up and two, take a step back. Look at your application, look at your CV and see where you can improve your CV a lot. also reflect as to what you can do differently. And so for me, for example, again, I was applying during, I was preparing during COVID it was really hard for me to get to a clinic. I was emailing, was calling ⁓ the clinics on the island to basically asking, can I come shadow can I get new experience, can I? blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I emailed clinics asking if they needed any help with routine tasks such as expressing anal glands ⁓ and trimming dog nails. I'm sure they love to have someone else do that. The responses got were almost immediate. This is what I mean about resiliency and changing up tactics because if what's working or what you're trying isn't working, you need to change it up. So even if it means that you will just go and express anal glands from nine to five Hey, that's getting you in the door That's experience. Yeah. No, that's really great do you have any projects in the works or is there anywhere that students can reach you for advice? Sure, so ⁓ starting a Instagram page just to be a more so for pre-vet students, vet students in... resources and things that I wish I had known earlier, things that have worked for me, things that haven't worked for me. I'm to make the transition and make life in vet school a little bit easier but it's in the works. So bear with me. But if you have any questions or your comments or anything at all and you just want to reach out, find me on Instagram at @gracevetmed okay! awesome. Go check that out, guys.