My Story

I recently had to fill out a scholarship application which asked the question: “What’s your story and what are your plans with your degree?” What I wrote surprised me, not only because I managed to sum it up in less than 500 words, but also because it drew my focus back to what I’m actually at University to do. All too often we get caught up in the here-and-now and we lose track of what we are aiming to achieve. The exercise in remembering how I got here and also where I’m (maybe) going was really rewarding, and I’d encourage everybody to take some time to think about your answer to this question,

“What’s your story, and what are your plans for your life?”

My answer’s below the cut.

This is a part of what the future definitely holds for me – lots more dog population control. – At WVS India

I began my veterinary journey when I was 15 and my horse broke its neck. The attitude of the vet and his ability to control the situation and help my horse, mother and myself had an instant effect and I was hooked. Work experience fostered my love of the profession but left me with a fairly narrow expectation of clinical practice. Within a year of my veterinary degree that impression was shattered as I went to Pakistan to work with ACIAR improving Dairy production among impoverished farmers.

This experience in Pakistan was formative in establishing my passion for public health and food security. The impact that working as a veterinarian was able to make was eye-opening and inspiring. I realised that I could make a difference in the global community and play a role in feeding people.

Back at uni I continue to foster an interest in many aspects of public health, and have had the chance to meet Dr Lydia Tong to learn about how Forensic Veterinary Pathology can help in domestic violence cases, and also to travel to India to learn about the impact of animal health on human tiger attacks. While in India I also had the opportunity to work with the charity WVS to desex and rabies vaccinate hundreds of dogs. This exposed me to a wide range of pathologies I had only encountered in graphic pictures in lectures. First hand pyometra and TVT are even more exciting and impressive than I had expected.

In 2013 I joined the Australian Veterinary Association and subsequently became the student representative for CSU. In this role I have been exposed to a great range of people in the profession and been a conduit between the profession and students. The biggest thing I’ve learnt in my time as a student rep has been the huge impact that mental illness has upon our profession, especially students. In this role I have been working hard with many others to establish a mentoring scheme for every graduate to help them in facing the challenges of practice. I’m looking forward to continuing to work towards improving veterinary mental health throughout the rest of my career, as it is an area I am incredibly passionate about.

My eventual plans with my veterinary degree include lecturing, as I have been lucky enough to have a plethora of incredible teachers I want the opportunity to inspire others as I have been inspired. I also want to work in the field of public health, either in food security or in zoonotic diseases. Veterinarians are uniquely posed to make a disproportionately huge impact in the wellbeing of people and I would like to be a part of this. Naturally there is also the allure of many other fields; emergency medicine, mixed practice, pathology, internal medicine or neurology to name a few.