Learning Opportunities

Pathways Program

Explore professional interests outside of traditional small- and large-animal medicine, through curriculum recommendations, career guidance, and mentorship. Faculty mentors dedicated to each pathway also provide resources for additional support like experiential opportunities, professional organizations, conferences, and training.

Professional pathways include:

• Industrial livestock medicine: Veterinary involvement in production animal health activities associated with large-scale production systems and allied industries. Career fields include feeding operations, food safety, animal welfare, pharmaceuticals, and research.
• Veterinary diagnostics: An integrated approach to medical testing used to identify and characterize disease processes and deliver diagnostic and consultative services. Examples of diagnostic specialties include toxicology, radiology, and microbiology.
• Non-traditional species: Aspects of veterinary medicine related to the care and research of zoological companion animals (avian, reptile, aquatic, and exotic), free-ranging wildlife, and wildlife kept under human care (zoo animals).
• Population health: An interdisciplinary approach to managing the health of a population to improve the health outcomes of individuals within that group. Career fields include public health and epidemiology.

Rural Veterinary Medicine

Recognizing the national need for food supply veterinary medicine, the D.V.M. Program offers courses, training opportunities, and resources that ensure students are well equipped to enter the rural workforce.

• Spanish for the Veterinary Professional: Graduate certificate promotes enriched interactions between veterinarians and Spanish-speaking farm workers by teaching the language necessary to communicate directly about animal health and wellbeing. Topics include obtaining health histories, diagnosing and explaining common illnesses and conditions, giving treatment recommendations, and describing protocols for preventative veterinary care. Intercultural aspects related to working with a diverse workforce are also included as a capstone experience to the program.
• Rural Practice Management Externship: Two-week externship that covers four tenets of practice management: financial literacy, culture, communication, and client recruitment and retention. Students participate in presentations and project-based classroom learning during week one, followed by hospital visits during week two.
• Well-being and counseling services: D.V.M. Student Psychological Counselor educates students about resilience, compassion fatigue, self-care and risk factors for mental health conditions to help combat unique challenges faced by rural veterinarians.
• Financial management support: On-staff financial education specialist and practice management expert help students develop skills in personal and business financial management, practice management, and business planning.