The power of passion: Shaping a career in veterinary medicine

With school starting back up again soon, there will be classes full of first-year veterinary students ready to begin their careers within the industry. On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, sat down with Sophia Jodka, a veterinary student at Colorado State University and a member of the dvm360 student ambassador program, to talk about her life as a first year veterinary student and her work with the American Pre-Veterinary Medical Association (APVMA). Throughout the episode, Christman and Jodka emphasize the importance of balancing veterinary medicine and personal interests, her research on West Nile Virus and preventing type 2 diabetes in a teenage girl, and more.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Sophia, you remember when you were in prevet, and I remember too, it gets a little competitive. So what [are] some pieces of advice that you would give to prevet students out there hoping to get involved in veterinary medicine?

Sophia Jodka: I think competition is definitely one of the biggest things that we face, and it really, really can get pretty cutthroat, and it's not at every school, and it's not at every prevet club, and it's not every prevet student, but there definitely are some people who can take the competition to a really, really high level, and I think that one of the tips is just to be really careful with who you're surrounding yourself with. There are so many incredible and supportive prevet students across the country, and those are really the ones that you want to be allying yourself with as you're going through this process, because it can be so stressful. You want to have good people in your corner. And I also stress just trying things outside veterinary medicine, too, during your prevet years. So like, becoming a group fitness instructor, but even if it's just joining a club that's not preveterinary related, and making sure that you still have those social networks and those connections that are not tied to vet school, I think that can be really helpful.

And then I always just like to remind students that there really is room for everybody in veterinary medicine. So even if you're standing in a room of 10 different applicants, I can guarantee you that you all want to do something at least a little bit different. So it's not so much of stepping on each other's toes. We're not all competing for the exact same job position. There are so, so many things you can do in this field. You can go into research. You can do small [animal], you can do large [animal]. You can specialize. So even with all the preveterinary students out there, I really, really believe there's room for everyone. So make sure that in your daily activities, you're reaching out to those people and setting a good example of how you want to support your colleagues and future classmates.