APVMA
Newsletter
A Great Big
Buckeye thank
you to O-H-I-O
Ohio State APVMA: 2015
By: Jessie Whitfield
On March 27th and 28th, Columbus Ohio
was a wonderful way
was taken over by 700 pre-veterinary students.
for students to interact
Ohio State University held the 2015 APVMA
and get to know one
symposium! While the location always changes,
another.
the goal of the symposium always stays the
Saturday!
same. Pre-veterinary students and their advisors
For some students,
are given the opportunity to meet with many
the morning began at
other people that share the same goals and
6:30 with the
passions. Representatives from veterinary
Presidents meeting,
schools, both local and abroad, come to talk to
and then breakfast for
future veterinarians about what their schools
everyone. Following
offer and what they are looking for in applicants.
breakfast, students
As all pre-veterinary students know, applying
either went to labs or
for veterinary school can be a terrifying trek, but
lectures or continued
knowing what one is looking for in a school can
until 4:30. During this
help take some pressure off of the application
time, students were
process. The symposium also demonstrates
also able to meet with
techniques that students might otherwise not get
different
to experience via both wet labs and lectures.
representatives from
Over all the symposium is a jam packed two day
Veterinary schools!
event full of knowledge and fun!!
The night ended with
Friday Night!
a dinner banquet
Ohio State’s Pre-Vet club worked with the
where award winners,
APVMA executive board to put a fantastic
2015 APVMA
weekend together. To start off the weekend,
locations, and new
students had dinner in the banquet hall and
executive board
listened to representatives from the school,
officers were
APVMAs, and other organizations. The pre-vet
announced.
Olympics were held shortly after. The Olympics
For those of you who
have never had the
pleasure of visiting
Ohio State University
Veterinary School,
you are missing out.
Not only are the
facilities amazing, the
staff/students are just
as wonderful. While
on the tour of the
veterinary school,
students were able to
ask questions from
current Ohio
Veterinary students
about applying, the
program itself, and
any other questions
they could think of.
The clinic seems to
stretch on for miles,
and was full of
medical equipment
that each pre-vet
student couldn’t wait
to learn how to use.
Thank you again
Ohio for allowing
students to walk
through the halls that
some of us will be
studying in! Also,
thank you to their
Pre-Vet club for
putting the
symposium together
and working with
APVMA!
2014-2015 & 2015-2016 Executive boards
My name is Bethany Porcelli, and I am your APVMA President for
the 2015-2016 year! I was born and raised in St. Petersburg,
Florida. I am a senior at the University of South Florida St.
Petersburg campus majoring in Biology and I'm applying to
veterinary school the summer of 2015.
I founded the University of South Florida Pre-Veterinary
Society in the summer of 2014. I have been the President from
summer 2014 and will continue as President until Spring 2016. I
am inspired to help others along this career path because it can
be difficult, confusing, and a very different journey for each
person. Along with starting the Pre-Veterinary Society, I have also
created a program under Jane Goodall's Roots and Shoots program in Pinellas County high
schools to protect endangered species. We are currently working on growing Florida Golden
Asters, promoting safe boating and manatee awareness, as well as educating the public on
protecting shore-nesting animals such as birds, and turtles.
I have grown up knowing I was born to be a veterinarian and was always surrounded by
animals. After graduating from a veterinary college I plan on specializing in wildlife medicine
and conservation.
I am excited to be your APVMA President and want to increase the communication
between the Executive Board and the members and make sure that each of your interests
and hopes for the organization will be heard. I look forward to providing great resources,
opportunities, and information to help you become a Veterinarian. I look forward to working
with all of you and wish you the best of luck on your veterinary journeys!
My name is Allie Borgelt, and I am a senior studying Animal
Science at North Carolina State University. While my home is in
the mountains of North Carolina, the majority of my animal
experience happens at school. My strongest passion is in Small
Animal Emergency and Critical Care Medicine! I also have interests
in Ruminant physiology and medicine. At NC State's Small
Ruminant Educational farm, I work as part of a team to sustain our
herds of meat goat (Kiko and Boer) and sheep breeds (Dorset and
Katahdin). When I apply to Vet School, I most look forward to
opportunities in both Emergency Medicine and One Health travel.
Hi everyone! My name is Alexa Brandstetter and I will be
your new Treasurer for the APVMA for the 2015-2016 year! I
attend the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg as a
junior in our Biology major with a concentration in Marine
Biology. I am also the treasurer for our campus’ PreVeterinarian Society for the 2015-2016 year.
After I graduate from University of South Florida my
hopes are to get into the University of Tennessee’s vet school!
From there I want to specialize in mainly small animal and
avian veterinarian medicine, and possibly large animal
medicine. I have known I wanted to be a vet most of my life,
starting from the time I was five and I watched as a vet tried
his hardest to save our dog’s life that was passing from cancer.
From that moment on I knew vets were very special people in
our communities and made a difference and I wanted to be
that person someday.
Words cannot even explain how truly excited I am to represent all of you as the APVMA
Treasurer! I can’t wait to work with this board of amazing men and woman and all of you! I
hope that we, as a board, can do our best in getting useful information out to all of you and I
hope to see most of you next year at the Symposium
I'm Jessie and I'm currently a junior at University of
North Carolina at Charlotte. At UNCC I'm working on
my bachelor's in Biology with a minor in psychology,
and I'm the 2015-2016 President of the Pre-Veterinary
club. Charlotte, North Carolina is where I now call
home, but I was actually raised in Brandon, Florida.
When I was younger I wanted to be a marine biologist,
but when I saw my first surgery that I knew I wanted to
be a veterinarian. Currently, small animal emergency
medicine and surgery are what I find to be most
interesting. I wanted to thank everyone for allowing me
to be your 2015-2016 AMVPA secretary, this is such a
wonderful opportunity!! I look forward to seeing what
the next year holds!
Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, I, William M. Willis have been surrounded by
the natural world my entire life. In order to achieve my
dream of becoming a Wildlife/Zoo veterinarian, I have
traveled thousands of miles to Tuskegee University.
Currently, I am a Junior Biology major with a minor in
animal science and has maintained a 4.0 GPA during
his tenure at Tuskegee. My travels are not limited to
Tuskegee. I have travelled to the Galapagos Islands,
several countries in Europe, and most recently Ghana
in Africa where I studied Wildlife Management. I
actively volunteer at the Tuskegee University
Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and am a founding
member of the Tuskegee chapter of the national
society of leadership and success. By attending an
HBCU, historically black college or university, and
having international experience, I bring a unique
perspective to the APVMA. Although I am busy, I
have stayed involved in Social media and computer savvy. As Webmaster, I will strive
to help members from around the country connect and collaborate. This may seem
daunting but for me, “When there is a WILL, there is a way".
My name is Michael Wallach, I’m from Pearl River New York, and I’m a
freshman at Becker College in Worcester Massachusetts, pursuing a Bachelor’s
Degree in Veterinary Science, with a Pre-Veterinary Concentration. I have been
working in animal hospitals for nearly three years, I serve as the Public Relations
Officer for the Becker College Pre-Veterinary Club, and the Vice-President of the
Lambing Team. Working with animals is my passion and I love learning more
about them every day at Becker College. I plan to attend veterinary school once
I’ve completed my undergraduate studies, I’m looking forward to educating clients
and helping their pets.
I have been an active member of the Pre-Vet Club since I began school at
the University of Maine at Orono. I have helped to fundraise, volunteer, and
meet weekly as first treasurer, vice president, and then president of the PreVet Club to make trips to veterinary schools, most recently Cornell. I held the
First Annual Pre-Vet Club Pet Show as a fundraiser on Homecoming
Weekend last year. In the fall of 2014, sheep were brought back to the
University. With our advisor, I founded and am current president of the Ewe
Maine Icelandics, the sheep club that looks after the University flock of
registered Icelandic sheep. I have been extremely interested in research,
working on several projects including testing for Caseous Lymphadenitis and
managing Haemonchus contortus. I have spoken on numerous occasions
about both of these projects, including poster presentations and at the
American Dairy Science Association Northeast Student Affiliate regional
meeting. I have shadowed and worked in small animal veterinary clinics in my spare time.
All my life has been dedicated to animals, since I was born my grandfather taught my dad and me
the love for all species, later on during my teenager years, my dad continue dedicating his life to help,
admire, and love all the creatures and transmitted that love and admiration to me. I feel that veterinary
medicine would not only be the correct pathway but the destiny for me. I feel that I didn’t choose to follow
this career but that this career actually chose me to love it with all my heart have worked as PLTL leader
helping students to develop concepts in the area of ecology. I am the current president of the preveterinary society in which I serve as a guidance and bridge between the members, professors,
veterinarians, universities, etc. Therefore, I have not only learned to be responsible but I have also put it
into practice. I have shown integrity, honesty, respect, I have worked with different people, and help each
other out working as teams to help others endure in their careers. All the values that I inherit from my
family, plus the values I learn furthering my academic years make me a perfect candidate who deserves
to be recognized as an outstanding senior.
Club
North
Animalia,
at
Carolina State
Hope
University’s PreCollege,
Veterinary Medical
works to
association began
promote
its partnership with
animal well-being on campus and
the Boo Radley foundation (a foundation
throughout their community. As a club,
that benefits both human and canine
they are trying to stimulate interest in
brain cancer research) in 2013. The
careers related to animals. During the
goal was to raise money, awareness,
school year, they take exotic animals
and common knowledge of canine brain
from Hope College’s Animal museum to
cancer. Their fundraisers began small,
local elementary schools and target
such as dinners, but eventually became
public schools with under privileged
one of the largest
children. Members teach students about
fundraisers/awareness campaigns their
the natural history and life of animals,
club had undertaken. They believe that
while sparking interest and allowing
many of their members have a new
students to interact with the animals.
stance on one health, and hope to
Now in its 4th year, the program has
influence the importance of one health
over a half dozen schools participating
in veterinary medicine. Along with the
and many more requesting visits. The
Boo Radley foundation, the club
club works with Ottawa County 4H to
participates in spay neuter clinics, dog
educate middle and
washes, and local
high school students
shelter clean ups.
about many topics in
They feel that it is
CONGRATULATIONS TO
biology, through the
extremely
Veterinary Science
important to give
ALL THE WINNERS OF THE
Program. Club
back to the
Animalia also
community, and
2014-2015 APVMA
addresses the dreaded
helps the members
finals week through
SYMPOSIUM!
grow as
their Finals Stress
individuals.
Relief program. Local
therapy dogs are
brought to the campus to help students
deal with the amount of stress finals put
on them. Club Animalia also participates
in Relay for life and many other
programs with a good cause.
Contact information
Bethany Porcelli
President
apvmapresident@gmail.com
Allie Borgelt
Vice President
apvmavicepresident@gmail.com
Alexa Branstetter
Treasurer
apvmatreasurer@gmail.com
Jessie Whitfield
Secretary
Congratulations Purdue.
apvmasecretary@gmail.com
APVMA is honored that
you wanted to host the
Williams Willis
2015-2016 APVMA
Webmaster
Symposium. We look
webmasterapvma@gmail.com
forward to working with
you throughout the year,
and we can’t wait to see
what the Symposium has in store for us!