On 21 November, BEVA were invited to speak at the "Get Into Veterinary Medicine Insight and UCAS Conference" to share with prospective vet students the realities of equine practice. We asked BEVA Council member Phil Cramp to attend, his report follows.
Vet Mentor is part of the Medic Mentor organisation. It is a non-profit organisation run by vets for applying students, veterinary students and vets. It aims to help students by widening access to veterinary medicine, providing courses and educational resources for veterinary school applicants. It also aims to help students find scholarships and opportunities that might be available to veterinary students and vets. To be honest, I had no idea that this wonderful organisation existed and when I was invited I was only too happy to be part of it and represent BEVA.
I am getting more and more used to Zoom lecturing but it is still so stale compared with the good old fashioned face-to-face lectures. Although I could at least wallow in the self-acclaimed satisfaction that my lame jokes were funny as I could not see any of the delegates nor hear their raucous laughter as everyone was on mute. It is strange, however I feel the relative anonymity that a screen provides encourages the more people to attend – there were 270 attendees and lots of questions. I shared my frustrations and disappointment with not being able to gain entry into vet school due to poor grades at A level (mainly chemistry) and I was also able to be honest with them about how I struggled through vet school. I did manage to get through and qualify in the end, loved nearly every minute of it and since then I have loved my job. I felt that I was able to show them that if I could do it then anyone can and that it is great profession to be part of………..still.
The only problem was that I was followed by “The Yorkshire Vet” who probably gave a much more interesting talk and was able to provide an insight into what it is like to be a ‘proper’ vet!