Most people find happiness in things like singing, dancing, painting, or even cooking. Passions are normally found inside a thing a particular person has created, something they’ve poured themselves into. My passion is found in something slightly different, it’s found in my love for animals. In my 10th grade english class, we are currently doing a project called the #IonPassionProject. The idea of it is to have students, such as me, research each of their passions and even DO their passions. It gives us a chance to break free from the typical school projects and do something that means something to us. For my project, I chose to look into large animal medicine, the career I’ve been pursing since I could first talk. The main question I’m trying to find the answer to is if a background in 4-H helps set a better path to getting into vet school. I’ve been in 4-H since I was 4 years old, showing dairy cattle and the occasional goat or pig. With 4-H being such an influential part of my life, I hope to end up seeing if my experience in it will help me become what I want.
I will need to research a local veternairy clinic, Sterners Veternairy clinic, and call and see if a job shadow could be arranged. I will need to see what being a vet will be like, and the only way to do that would be to ride along with a vet on farm calls. I have to get over my fear of talking to strangers and ask the vets there if any of them have backgrounds in 4-H, or if they think it helps out in their field of work.
A book or magazine would be hard to find for what I need, so I plan on using any blogs online relating to large animal medicine and asking actual vets themselves about the things I need to learn. I will end up questioning any large animal vet I can get at Sterner Veternairy clinic, and ask them any questions I feel will help me get a grasp on what it’s like to work as one.
Hopefully, the outcome of my project will be me getting a better idea on what it’s like to be a large animal vet, and maybe some pictures of my 4-H progress as well.