Vet Gazette

CVM admissions coordinator, Michelle Waldron, advises a prospective student.

As of today, more than 1,000 applicants are in the process of applying to the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) for enrollment in Fall 2014. Michelle Waldron, admissions coordinator for CVM, expects about 800 of those to be completed by the deadline on October 2nd. That will be 100 more applicants than last year and 300 more than the year before.

How does she know there are that many people working on applications to CVM? The veterinary college application process is now totally paperless, and each step can be viewed online, in real time, on the Veterinary Medical College Application Service (VMCAS) website.

When a student inputs transcripts, test scores, and essays through the VMCAS portal, they appear on an interface that can be accessed by each college the student has designated. This means Waldron no longer has to shuffle through hundreds of file folders stuffed with paper. She now views links to all the pieces of an applicant’s file on one screen.

This has radically changed the process for verifying a student’s basic qualifications.  The once tedious task of sorting through paper lists of undergraduate coursework to create spread sheets that track whether or not a student has met OSU prerequisites, is now just a matter of pulling up a screen and checking off boxes.

To coordinate with the paperless VMCAS system, the OSU business center designed an online payment system for CVM application fees. This saves Waldron many hours of ripping open envelopes, logging payment information, and processing checks. “It also means that there is no opportunity for checks or important documents to get misplaced,” she says.

The new system will also help faculty evaluators work through the large number of applicants to select the best mix of new students that will be a good fit for OSU.

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DVM and graduate students presented the results of their biomedical investigative work at Research Day last week.

Presentations filled the Magruder auditorium all day and ranged from CT Imaging of Dairy Calves with Respiratory Disease to Effects of Pro-Inflammatory Compound on NMDAA Receptor Expression and Memory.

“Research Day is a chance for the students to present the research they’ve been working on all summer- both in posters and in verbal presentations. This is an extremely important part of the research process. In presenting their research, the students learn to analyze their data and to summarize their project in a way that can be understood by others not working in the same field of research,” says Interim Dean Sue Tornquist. “It also gives students the opportunity to answer questions and lead discussions. Research day is a way of sharing scientific information in the CVM community.”

Students presenting were Gregory Clausen, Lucie Crane, Cherise Hill, Meg Jacobson, Megan Lee, Eugenio Mannucci, Margot Mercer, Moriah Strong, Jake Tidewell, Julien Lemaitre, Satoko Izume, Jing Dong, Molly Seaward, Niki Fadden, and Danielle Butler.

Novartis Animal Health has made available online several seminars from the 2013 Western Veterinary Conference addressing new research on Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis Vaccines. To view the presentations, visit their website and create an account. Once you have logged in, you may select a specific presentation to view. Continuing education credit is awarded after taking a brief quiz. The are a total of four credits available.

Hospital client Lynette Richardson sent a Thank You message to the CVM Facebook page today:

“Thank you to all the staff at the clinic that were informative and supportive while I made the decision to put my beloved horse Buck down. I will always remember your kindness, and allowing me all the time I needed to make a tough decision and to spend time with him. I will not hesitate to use your services again or tell anyone about your amazing facility. You made a very tough day a little easier to deal with.”

Kudos to the faculty, staff, and students who work in the Large Animal Hospital!

“This was a breathtaking experience and will be unforgettable throughout my life.” That’s the kind of impact the OSU Summer Veterinary Experience can have on a high school student.

Last week, twelve academically talented Oregon students, with an interest in veterinary medicine, spent a whirlwind week at OSU living in dorms, attending workshops, doing research, and learning about college life. The students were selected from a pool of applicants based on their grades, the recommendation of a teacher, and an essay written by them about their interest in veterinary medicine.

CVM faculty from all departments helped deliver a wide variety of challenging laboratory and clinical experiences including diagnostic imaging demonstrations, a surgery skills lab, an osteology class, large and small animal exams, rehab demonstrations, and a necropsy lab.

One of the goals of the new program is to introduce students who are interested in veterinary careers to the many facets of the profession. To that end, every afternoon was spent in a laboratory working closely with a faculty partner on a week-long research project. Many of the students worked on creating polymerase chain reactions to isolate DNA and identify bacteria and viruses.  Others worked in immunology identifying white blood cell antigens.

Those are challenging topics for fifteen and sixteen-year -olds but these high-achievers were up to the task. “We had such a great group of high school students this year. They asked really smart questions and put a lot of time and thought into their research projects,” says Dr. Sue Tornquist, Interim Dean of CVM.

Guiding a group of high school students for an entire week would not have been possible without the help of five current vet med students who provided everything from skill instruction to after-hours activities like bowling and volleyball, to sharing personal perspectives on college. This year’s mentors were Shelby Johnson, Stephanie Lutz, Jared Sharp, Sierra LaBrecque, and Jonathon Sago. “They were exceptional,” says Tornquist. “They really went the extra mile to make this a great experience for the students.”

Aarika Guerrero, Administrative Program Assistant in the Dean’s office, organized the many details of recruiting students and mentors, and scheduling all the workshops. Chaperones Katie Larsen and Evan Oglevie provided critical support and guidance to the newbies on campus.

A quote from one of this year’s students, illustrates why everyone involved is so committed to the project: “The influence of this experience has changed my goals, assumptions, and dreams. Veterinary medicine is awesome! I love it!”

View the Summer Veterinary Experience photo album on CVM Facebook.

The Oregon Livestock Disease Program is a collaborative project between the Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine, the Oregon State Veterinarian’s Office, and private veterinarians in the State of Oregon.

Ryan Scholz, DVM, OSU class of 2011, in his position as district veterinarian at the Oregon Department of Agriculture, travelled the state conducting livestock disease surveys then developed a new website that provides livestock producers, veterinarians, and the public easy access to the information he compiled.

The website allows users to look up reports by disease agent (cattle, poultry, etc..), by disease syndrome (digestive, reproductive, etc.), and by date and location. It also provides an interface for veterinarians to report disease cases.