Curriculum

Your future of caregiving

Whether you want to serve as a private practitioner, improve access to care for underserved communities, prevent disease in your local community, or work at a biotechnology company protecting animal and human health, your curriculum will help shape your veterinary education.

Tailor your training by selecting courses that align with your professional interests in clinical practice, public health, research, education, and beyond.

CSU's well-rounded curriculum promotes clinical, professional, and relational skills, with unique course offerings in:

• Animal welfare: Required second-year course blends foundational concepts with hot topics, focusing on emotional intelligence and the importance of open mindedness when working in novel settings. Through weekly lectures and activities led by nationally-recognized welfare experts, students engage in topics like equine rescue work, zoo management, and the ethics of keeping pets.
• Client communication: Internationally-recognized core curriculum is designed to help students graduate with the confidence and skills they need to build partnerships with colleagues and clients.
• Companion Animal Euthanasia Training Academy certification: Core training throughout all four years that culminates in certification designed to improve the euthanasia experience for the animal, caregiver, and veterinary team.
• Fear Free® Veterinary Certification Program: Required course for incoming students that demonstrates how to facilitate veterinary visits that eliminate fear, anxiety, and stress and create an experience that is better and safer for animals, caregivers, and veterinary healthcare teams.
• The Healer's Art: Elective course centers on four topics - Wholeness, Grief and Loss, Mystery and Awe, and Service - to explore student experiences, beliefs, and values related to working as a veterinary medical professional. CSU was the first veterinary school in the country to offer this course.
• Spanish for the Veterinary Professional: Graduate certificate program helps students break the Spanish-English language barrier to improve client relationships and expand access to animal care. Specifically for veterinary students, the program was created as a partnership between the D.V.M. Program and the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Program content and design is informed by data gathered from a comprehensive language needs analysis conducted alongside veterinary professionals in predominantly Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S., Colombia, and Mexico.
• Surgical skills training: Students receive surgical training during every semester of the D.V.M. Program. Core principles and surgical skills are established in years one and two through classroom and wet lab learning that focus on repetition of skills with immediate performance feedback to facilitate growth towards mastery. Students will continue to apply and develop these skills in years three and four through additional hands-on opportunities, like entry-level surgeries on models, cadavers, and live patients. Students may also take clinical or laboratory electives that align with their professional interests and future career goals, including species-specific advanced procedures and surgical decision making in field settings.
• Veterinary practice management: Elective course provides an introduction to management of veterinary practice finances, marketing, personnel, and client relations.