Jun
15
Written by:
NJVMA Admin
6/15/2011 12:52 PM
By Dr. Gregory Krane
As a part of NJVMA's Diversity Initiative, Dr. Farleigh Layfield and I had the pleasure to take part in Voorhees Middle School's, Second Annual Career Fair held on Wednesday, May 18th in Voorhees, NJ.
It was a great experience. The school gave us a table in the library. We brought 
radiographs, models of dog and cat mouths, some bones, blood tubes, a model of a canine heart with heartworm, and a laptop that we put on powerpoint slides available from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) for school presentations.
There were people there representing other careers (policeman, fireman, nurse, bankers, rotary club, photographers, coffee shop owner, DJ/entertainers), and different classes from the middle school cycled through over the course of the day. Many of the kids were excited to talk with us, and we were also excited to have a chance to educate them about veterinary medicine and pet healthcare. 
Our goals were to adjust the mindset that pets come in for "shots" to that owners bring pets to the veterinarian for a thorough evaluation of their pet's health and to receive some education about how to best provide care to their pets given the means they have possible. We wanted to make sure that kids knew it is important to continue monthly year-round preventatives (many did not know they could catch diseases from their pets that these medications help to prevent), and that it is important to bring a pet to the veterinarian at minimum once a year, even if the pet is healthy. We talked about clinical signs of illness that would necessitate a trip to the veterinarian. 
We also talked about the education process by which one becomes a veterinarian, and also the many types of job opportunities available to vets (research, large animal, small animal, teaching, exotics, public health, food safety, etc). We let students know about the NJVMA (as well as its facebook and twitter account), and also let students know about some summer programs designed for students who are thinking about becoming veterinarians. Most of the kids were very excited, friendly, and had good questions.
It was a lot of fun to participate in this program, and I would welcome the opportunity to do it again in the future.
I work at the Mount Laurel Animal Hospital and Farleigh works at the Burl Moor Driben Animal Hospital.
If you're interested in participating in the NJVMA Diversity Initiative, please visit the NJVMA Members Log-in page for more information.