KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 7, 2020 \u2013 Sydney Page knew from a very young age that she wanted to become a veterinarian. The 溏心vlog免费B站 junior also knew she wanted to study abroad sometime during her college years.<\/p>\n
So last fall she merged her interests and spent a semester getting hands-on veterinary experience with a wide diversity of animals in Thailand. In an affiliation with the study-abroad organization Loop Abroad, Page was one of 14 students that learned alongside veterinarians from around the globe while volunteering with elephants, sea turtles, zoo animals, and shelter dogs and cats.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was exactly what I was looking for, and it was really amazing,\u201d said Page, an animal science major from Eliot, Maine. \u201cAll the classes were taught by vets, and we got a ton of hands-on opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every two weeks, she and her classmates visited different animal care facilities to shadow the veterinarians working there, take classes, and volunteer their time and skills. They spent two weeks at a dog shelter while taking a class in small animal management and medicine, for instance, then learned about surgical nursing skills while assisting at a high-volume spay and neuter clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe served as the vet techs at the clinic and learned all the skills to give pre-medications, monitor the animals through the surgery, administer anesthesia and monitor their recovery,\u201d Page said. \u201cWe helped them spay 125 animals in four days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her favorite experience was a two-week rotation studying elephant medicine and management at an elephant sanctuary that included providing the animals with medical treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t realize how smart elephants are until you meet them,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can teach them anything. We trained some baby elephants to present different parts of their bodies for medical evaluations, and they picked it up so fast. And they\u2019re so interactive with people. It was an experience you can\u2019t get back home. And I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Page also learned to scuba dive while studying about marine ecosystems and spent two weeks learning about wildlife conservation while working at a zoo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went into it knowing I wanted to be a vet, but I didn\u2019t really know what kind of veterinary medicine I wanted to do, so I was hoping the experience would help me figure it out. And it did,\u201d she said. \u201cI had debated doing marine animals or wildlife, but I realized that I really do love working with dogs and cats. I like the personal interaction you get with animals that are used to being around people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the hot climate, Page also loved interacting with the people of Thailand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about Thailand going in, but I found the Thai people to be so sweet and welcoming,\u201d she said. \u201cOnce they learned that I could speak a little Thai, they were so excited. It felt very safe. And Chaing Mai has a caf\u00e9 where you can go and pet cats and dogs while you get your coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n
With two semesters to go before she completes her 溏心vlog免费B站 degree, Page is focusing on some of her most difficult classes \u2013 biochemistry, cell biology, genetics and animal nutrition among them \u2013 and beginning the process of applying to vet school. She will also continue to sing with the 溏心vlog免费B站 acapella group Rhody Rhapsodies and tutor 溏心vlog免费B站 athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really have a preference for where I go to vet school,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just excited that I\u2019m now sure that I want to focus on dogs and cats, and I\u2019m ready to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 7, 2020 \u2013 Sydney Page knew from a very young age that she wanted to become a veterinarian. The 溏心vlog免费B站 junior also knew she wanted to study abroad sometime during her college years. So last fall she merged her interests and spent a semester getting hands-on veterinary experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-75273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}