The 34 new veterinary students at the University of Calgary will barely have time to meet each other before being thrown head first into the life of professional veterinarians working in clinics, zoos and with researchers.
Classes for Canada’s fifth veterinary school started Sept. 8, but this group will be sent into the field to experience a vet’s life before they hit the books.
The inaugural class, which will graduate in 2012, represents a cross section of experience.
“We all want to live up to the new program and do it justice,” said Tegan Olesen, who moved to Calgary from British Columbia a year and a half ago with a biology degree. She was also accepted at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan but selected the Calgary program.
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The selection process was grueling. High grades and the ability to think quickly were among the criteria. Applicants had to present written work and go through an intensive interview process in 10 different scenarios with panels of scientists who presented cases studies and expected well-thought-out responses to each situation.
“It was like speed dating where you go from scenario to scenario, where you think on your toes,” said the 24-year-old, who has worked with horses all her life and did extensive volunteer work with Calgary area vet clinics and the zoo.
Jordan Holt made it through the selection process without an undergraduate degree but has completed the 10 required courses of study at Medicine Hat College and is already looking at a career as a bovine vet.
“I want to become a vet who is experienced with the skills to serve the beef industry in Alberta,” he said during the opening ceremonies for the school Sept. 3.
At age 20, the Medicine Hat native sees life as a rural vet as a challenge because he understands there are too few practices servicing the province’s largest agriculture industry.
That practical outlook is also serving Erin Shields well. She holds a degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Guelph in Ontario and has a chiropractic practice.
She lives and works on a ranch at Millarville, Alta., and is also an accomplished horse person who is interested in equine care and rehabilitation.
At age 32, she is among the older students and decided applying to the program was a chance to develop a lifelong dream.
“I always wanted to be a vet and now I get to live that dream,” she said.
“I started a different career which I enjoyed. I always regretted that I never did try so I decided with a new school here, it is now or never,” she said.
She applied as soon as the university started accepting students. She liked the practical approach to interviewing students using case studies and is eager to use the entire province as a classroom.
Class time will be spent at the university medical school and at the clinical centre still under construction in northwestern Calgary.
Sudents will also go into the field to study with practitioners in all aspects of small animal and livestock care.
The final year of the four year program will be spent mostly off campus where the students will be under the tutelage of vets who can teach hands-on skills in real settings.
The program first announced in 2004 by the Alberta government combines livestock, small animal and wildlife studies.
The clinical centre has cattle, horses, pets, reindeer and musk oxen available on site for the live course work that starts when the buildings are finished in 2009.
