By Allie
Allsup
As
we embark on this year’s summer veterinary camp, our eighth one since its
inception in 2011, we have 43 young campers joining us to listen, learn and engage
the field of veterinary medicine.
Once
check-in concluded around 8:30 a.m., campers and their family members were
invited to join camp staff in the First Year (DVM) Classroom for a welcoming
ceremony. This included a meet and greet of all the camp staff members and a
brief summary about what the camp entails.
After
initial greetings etc., we had a surprise guest, our mascot Bully, who is also affectionately
known as Jak, and his handler, Lisa Pritchard. Lisa got to share all the
details about Jak and his many habits, while also sharing a little bit about
the history of our beloved mascot. As parents said goodbye, each camper got to
take a group picture with their counselor and Jak to officially start camp.
Kaitlyn
Junkin, Student Camp Director, is in charge of making sure camp comes together and
has been preparing for this day for weeks. When asked about what she was most
looking forward to about the camp, she replied that it’s getting the kids
better prepared for the future that keeps her going.
“I’m
really looking forward to teaching kids more about veterinary medicine,” Junkin
said. “I wish I had this knowledge and opportunity when I was 15 or 16 years
old and it’s exciting because we get to do stuff that us second year veterinary
students haven’t even gotten to do as students yet.”
In
addition to a camp staff comprised of veterinary students, MSU’s summer
veterinary camp program also has a clinician or faculty member overseeing each
of the labs students participate in, to provide added oversight and expertise.
With
camp officially underway, campers got to play some fun icebreaker games to get
to know one another better. One of which was ‘Guess the Pet’, a game where the
campers tried to guess the pet of their counselor. It was a great way for the
campers to get to know the counselors a little bit better and a fun-loving
activity to get them warmed up to what’s to come.
Next,
it was finally time for the campers to experience their first Critical Care Lab,
taught by Dr. Brittany Moore-Henderson. Before they got to enjoy some hands-on
experiences in the lab, Dr. Marc Seitz came in and gave a 40-minute interactive
presentation about Heat Strokes in Dogs. This presentation got them better
prepared for what they were about to experience and allowed them to have plenty
of discussion before diving into the lab activities.
It’s
here that we learned of campers coming from as far as Tennessee, Kentucky and
North Carolina. It goes to show that these students are really focused on exploring
a future career in the field of veterinary medicine, as well as how far they
are willing to come to make that goal happen. In fact, between the two camp
sessions – day camp, which just kicked off today, and overnight camp, which
will kick off next week – there are campers from a total of fifteen different
states (coast-to-coast) and two countries (U.S. and Norway) represented.
Finished
with the presentation, campers were led into one of the MSU-CVM labs where they
experienced seven different stations with hands-on activities. Each camper got to
experience some type of medical task whether it be pumping the chest of a
coding dog (stuffed of course) or putting a catheter into a dummy dog. They
were each tasked with very real situations with our counselors providing
constant care, attention and participatory efforts for the students to really
learn and understand what they are being taught today. They got to learn and
review different techniques for helping a coding animal and got to observe
certain techniques used by veterinarians.
Day
Camp Coordinator Mekayla Mekara talked about what she is hoping to achieve and
what she wants the campers to take away from this camp.
“My
goal is for the campers to walk away with hands on knowledge that will prepare
them for future job shadowing, internships or any field after high school,
whether it be veterinary medicine, a veterinary technician or any medical or
science field,” said Mekara.
If
this morning has anything to say, it’s that this camp is jam packed with
activities that are fun and essential for aspiring young veterinarians to
encounter, all aimed at encouraging them to consider a career path in the field
of veterinary medicine.
For more information about the Mississippi State
University College of Veterinary Medicine’s summer veterinary camp program,
visit www.cvm.msstate.edu/outreach/veterinary-camp.To see more photos please visit our facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/MSUVetCamp/?fref=mentions
