Last meeting we had one of our officers, Sophie, talk to us about animal behavior. Here are the minutes!

Last meeting, I (Sophie) gave a talk on
behavioral medicine and its role in veterinary medicine. Ethology is the
study of animal behavior, and most of the animal behavior that is discussed
in vet medicine deals with the issue on an *applied* basis. In other words,
most of us in the veterinary field are concerned with "behavioral
management". The issue is very pertinent to vet medicine because we are
constantly faced with: How do we handle, subdue, and treat an animal safely,
even when the animal is an ornery parrot or a 1,000 pound horse or a 10-ton
elephant? What happens when clients turn to their vets for training
resources or when they complain of serious behavioral problems with their
animals? Moreover, what do animals require in terms of their environment to
become or remain healthy? Virtually every vet will need to understand animal
behavior and learn how to approach, treat, and handle ALL types of animals.
The field of applied animal behavior seeks to answer these crucial
questions. FYI: I am teaching a Decal called "The Art and Science of Applied
Animal Behavior". Enrollment is closed for this semester, but I do plan on
continuing this Decal next year. If interested, keep an eye out.

Hey guys,

Sorry about the FORBIDDEN page. Technical difficulties but everything is fixed now!

This Tuesday January 25th at 5:30pm (Berkeley time 5:40pm) will be the first meeting of the semester! YAYYY!

We will be discussing our plans for the semester: trips, fundraisers, guest speakers, etc.

Afterwards Dr. Hahn will be personally holding an interview workshop. However, it is strongly advised that only those who are planning to apply or will have interviews coming up (ie. juniors and seniors) attend. Remember this interview workshop is offered ever year so lets give a chance to those people who really need it.

Either way, we would love to see everyone for atleast the first part of the meeting to just go over what we have in store for you and maybe you guys can give us some feedback as well on what you would like to do for this semester!

-Ruby Jong (Secretary & Webmaster)

Veterinary Students from UC Davis: Terza B. and Brian Z.

Terza gave a short talk on her experiences the summer before Vet school and her first full year at Davis.

TERZA

• She talked about the importance of her PI (Principle Investigator, Dr. Pessavento sp?) who mentored her and also allowed her to work in her lab.
• She talked about the UC Davis Veterinary Scientists in Training Program (VSTP) which is what she’s doing. It means she is going for a PhD as well as for a DVM.
• The program will pay for part of your tuition which is why many students decide to do it. The school benefits because the point of the program, for them, is to create future veterinary faculty.
• She will be taking her first two years in vet school which is mostly focuses on normal and abnormal conditions (didactic).The last two vet school years are more clinical where you do clinical rotations
• However, in this program, she will complete her first two years, and then go into her PhD program and later finish up her last two years of vet school.

• She emphasized the importance of getting research experience before vet school if you want to go into this program. She didn’t get experience until the summer after her first year and because of this she will be in school longer. She was able to get some experience over the summer by working in a lab.
• There is only about 15 people in the program per year (that includes students of all years).

• Terza says she loves viruses and infectious diseases
  • Favorite virus: said she worked with avian influenza, she said she didn’t like retroviruses

BRIAN

• Brian is a first year student (along with Melanie and Becky, the co-presidents from last year). He showed us pictures of his first year including pictures of the vet class and his classes. They both talked about how they dissected a dog and how every group names their cadaver dog. There are a lot of ways students can bond with their classmates (ropes courses, parties, games).

DR. HAHN

• Talked about the Health Professions Scholarship Program affiliated with the U.S. Army (F. Edward Herbert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP)). If you sign up with the army you can have all of your schooling paid for. You then must spend some time serving as a vet at the army bases. Email one of the officers if you would like to know more (we have brochures). Go to healthcare.goarmy.com or call 1-800-USA-ARMY.

As many of you know, there was a devastating fire at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society. Therefore, the Cal Pre-Vet Club decided to try and do something to give back to BEBHS to help rebuild their facility. We came up with the Chocolate-covered Strawberry Fundraiser.

The fundraiser was held on Sproul Plaza on Wednesday, Oct. 13th to Friday Oct. 15th from 10-3pm. Thanks to the help of the members of the Pre-Vet Club and an adorable puppy, the fundraiser was a success! THANK YOU to everyone who participated in running the fundraiser and to those people who were kind enough to donate for a good cause!

Here are a few pictures of the event!

Here are the delicious strawberries!!

Our little helper puppy, SHADOW~ (Thanks to Calla for sharing Shadow with us!)

AND last but not least! some of our volunteers!

Ms. President w/ Shadow~

Mika & Shadow. Too adorable!

Mikey & Amanda Advertising!

Ruby, Amanda, and Victry @ the Table selling Chocolate Covered Strawberries~!

Once again! THANKS to everyone that helped out with both tabling and making the strawberries! And if you would like to help out BEBHS or learn more about them, you can go to their website www.berkeleyhumane.org

1. Fundraiser – Given the financial aspects and predicted popularity of our
three fundraising options (1. cookies, 2. cupcakes, 3. chocolate-covered
strawberries), the group decided to opt for chocolate covered strawberries
due primarily to cost-effectiveness and preparation ease. We are going to
try the “feel-good” method of donation, where consumers decide how much they
want to donate (albeit, we will recommend $1-2 per strawberry pair).
Proceeds from our fundraiser will go to Berkeley East Bay Humane Society to
help rebuild their facilities after a devastating fire. FYI, the next
fundraiser (pumpkin pie- November) will be for the club itself.

2. Our first speaker of the semester was Dr. Jensen, our club moderator. She
went briefly over her journey from her undergraduate years at Stanford
University to vet school to clinical practice in SF to her current
occupation as a lab veterinarian at UC Berkeley. She described the duties of
a lab veterinarian and went over the relationship that a lab veterinarian
must maintain with researchers who seek animal subjects. It was noted that
there are several facilities at UC Berkeley that house animals under the
care of our lab vets (mainly mice, rabbits, and, of course, our hyena
colony!). Though lab animal testing can be a controversial field, Dr. Jensen
took time to reiterate a central point: A lab animal vet should perform his
or her job with the knowledge that s/he is improving the life of research
animals, whose contributions will further the quality of life for other
organisms. Lab animal veterinary medicine is a particularly exciting field
due to its heavily investigative nature and constant interactions with new
research. It is, however, a particularly sensitive occupation, too, so
internships and volunteering opportunities can be sparse. For more
information, Dr. Jensen generously gave us her e-mail. You can reach her at:
drkjensen@berkeley.edu

1. Introductions: Our club moderators are the ever-generous Dr. Jensen and
Dr. Hahn. Board members are Tarini Ullal (tarini.ullal@gmail.com), Victry
Mueller (victrymueller@berkeley.edu), Ruby Jong (rubyejong@berkeley.edu),
Christine Bobula (christinebobula@gmail.com), and Sophie Liu (
sophiekliu@gmail.com). You are welcome and encouraged to contact any of the
board members with questions or suggestions regarding the club, how to be an
active member, vet school, events, etc. etc.!

2. On the note of membership: It was discussed that maintaining an active
membership with PVC will require attendance to at least TWO meetings and
active participation in at least ONE fundraiser. As time goes on and details
get worked out, you will receive more information on what fundraisers we
will be doing and how you can sign up. One way to keep active, however, is
to attend meetings. Remember: *Meetings are every other Tuesday at 5:30PM at
the Northwest Animal Facility. Since our 1st meeting was on Sept 7, our next
meeting is on Sept 21 at 5:30PM.* The NAF is located underneath the stairs
on Oxford St. and Berkeley Way. It is next to the
currently-under-construction Li Ka Shing biomedical/teaching facility and
across from Yali’s Cafe. If you’re coming from campus, it is underneath the
stairs as you walk from Genetics Plant and Biology building/Koshland/Barker.

3. We have several new plans for this year, which include a wide variety of
speakers from all fields of veterinary medicine, including: small animal,
reptile, equine, lab animal, and the PhD progam. We are also in the process
of planning new and exciting trips, such as UC Berkeley’s Hyena Colony, the
Marine Mammal Center, Cal Academy of Sciences, and a UC Davis trip.
Fundraisers will likely include a pumpkin pie fundraiser around November and
a bakesale of sorts. The club was presented with a variety of homemade goods
that will potentially be sold at the bakesale. The items were animal-related
1) cupcakes 2) cookies 3) chocolate covered strawberries.

4. The last portion of the meeting ended with lots of good advice for
pre-vets, including information about appropriate classes (i.e. which Cal
classes fulfill UC Davis requirements), the art and science of applying, and
volunteer opportunities around this area. Emphasis was placed on the UC
Davis vet school primarily because vet schools like to take back their own
state’s residents. And remember, pre-vets – Field work is nice to have, but
keep your grades high! You can always get more hours after graduation, but
you can’t re-do your GPA. On that note, there are a lot of ways to gain
hours in college through volunteering at local organizations (i.e.
non-profit animal rescues, spay&neuter clinics, etc.). Don’t be afraid to
contact organizations or local veterinarians, but also expect smaller tasks,
like cleaning, walking, etc. Show perseverance and passion =)

We covered a lot of information in our first meeting, and it’s just barely
starting! We have a full schedule of speakers, trips, and fundraisers
planned so please come to the meetings *every other Tuesday at 5:30PM at the
NAF*, and be an active part of Cal’s Pre-Vet Club! Again, *next meeting is
Tuesday, September 21 at 5:30PM at the NAF. *Hope to see you all again soon!

Welcome to the NEW Cal Pre-Vet Club website! It is finally up and we will be posting loads of information on here! You can come here to read the minutes for each meeting or look up when event times are or meeting times. You can also come here to get information on the officers and ways to reach them. We will also be uploading pictures & different resources that fellow pre-vet club members and visitors can use. Feel free to browse around~!