On this episode of Vet Tech Talk we welcome Leigha Wright. Leigha is the Clinical Coordinator at App State’s Veterinary Technology Program. She is an award-winning veterinary technician and teacher, as well as being an avid supporter of her students dedicated to creating a productive environment for their learning. She and her two Airedale terriers live on a Texas.

Transcript

Dave Blanks:

Hello there. Welcome to Vet Tech Talk! I'm Dave Blanks, and I work here at App State in University Communications. On this episode, we're joined by Leigha Wright. Leigha started her veterinary technology career in the Appalachian mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Her career has taken her across multiple states while working in diagnostic laboratories, veterinary schools, and veterinary technology schools. She is a credentialed technician in Texas and was awarded the Licensed Veterinary Technician of the Year Award from the Texas Veterinary Medical Association in 2021. Leigha worked as the Clinical Coordinator for a veterinary technology program in Texas for 3 years prior to joining Appalachian State. Wright earned a Teaching Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development in 2020.

She works with the Texas Airedale Rescue Team and has two Airedale Terrier mixes of her own, along with two cats that she rescued while in veterinary technology school. Here’s my conversation with Leigha Wright.

Dave Blanks:

Leigha?

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Do you want to do a podcast with me?

Leigha Wright:

Yes, please.

Dave Blanks:

Let's do this thing. Leigha Wright, you are the clinical coordinator for the Veterinary Technology Program. And where do you live?

Leigha Wright:

I live in Texas right now.

Dave Blanks:

All right.

Leigha Wright:

But I'm from Eastern Kentucky.

Dave Blanks:

Okay.

Leigha Wright:

We can't be mistaken for a Texan.

Dave Blanks:

Well, it's a different accent, right?

Leigha Wright:

It is. It is.

Dave Blanks:

But Texans have an accent as well.

Leigha Wright:

They do.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

They get a little confused with mine because they're like, you ain't from around here.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, really?

Leigha Wright:

But you kind of sound like you might be. So what's going on?

Dave Blanks:

All right. So you're the clinical coordinator, so that means you're in charge of what? What is your gig here at Appalachian?

Leigha Wright:

My job as clinical coordinator is I will match all of our vet tech students with the clinical site where there is a credential technician or a DVM. So a veterinarian, that will help them to obtain those hands-on psychomotor skills.

Dave Blanks:

Psychomotor.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah. Fancy, right?

Dave Blanks:

That sounds cool.

Leigha Wright:

So they get those skills. They learn how to do them at a clinical facility during their clinical externship, and that way these students, yes, it is an online program. So they get those, they get the didactic knowledge. They get it in class. It's online. We're still a community. We're still a team. But then I also help to provide them with teams in the field. So they get to make those connections, make those interactions. And my happy place is matching students to these clinical sites.

Dave Blanks:

Nice.

Leigha Wright:

So we match their personalities and everything.

Dave Blanks:

I gotcha. Wow. Okay. Cool. Well, that sounds very comprehensive. Can you tell me how you came into veterinary technology, veterinary medicine? What was your journey that led you to that?

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Did you always love animals?

Leigha Wright:

Oh, yes.

Dave Blanks:

Yes.

Leigha Wright:

I missed my last day of eighth grade to help my dog give birth.

Dave Blanks:

Aw.

Leigha Wright:

So it's always been in my mind. I grew up not knowing what a veterinary technician was. I grew up in eastern Kentucky. I'm from Pike County, Kentucky, deep in the mountains, and I did not know what a vet tech was. I know what a veterinarian-

Dave Blanks:

Welcome back to the mountain mountains, by the way.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah. Oh.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

I'm so happy to be back in these mountains.

Dave Blanks:

I bet. Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

Just wake up and smell that air. I'm like, Hmm. Look at that fog.

Dave Blanks:

Doesn't it smell different?

Leigha Wright:

It is.

Dave Blanks:

Golly.

Leigha Wright:

It does.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. Okay. All right. So you grew up there.

Leigha Wright:

Yes. And so I went to college thinking, all right, I'm going to be a veterinarian.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, okay.

Leigha Wright:

Because I wanted to play with animals.

Dave Blanks:

Right. Yeah, sure.

Leigha Wright:

But that didn't really fit right. It didn't fit with my soul of exactly what I wanted. I wanted more of the hands on. I don't have to take O Chem. My gosh. Please don't make me do it.

Dave Blanks:

What is that?

Leigha Wright:

Organic chemistry.

Dave Blanks:

Organic chemistry. Oh, I should know what that is. Being a part of higher education.

Leigha Wright:

That was bad. Yeah. That's hard.

Dave Blanks:

Rough stuff.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah. I didn't want that. I wanted to go play with puppies and kitties, but it piqued my interest. The school I went to had a on-campus vet tech program, and I ended up switching majors. So that's how I ended up in vet tech.

Dave Blanks:

How different was it when you switched the major? Was it like, oh my God, what am I doing? Or was it like, this is it? Yes.

Leigha Wright:

It was, this is it because-

Dave Blanks:

What a good feeling.

Leigha Wright:

The difference between, because I've also worked for a vet school. The difference between vet tech and pre-vet in undergrad is in a lot of the vet tech programs, you're going to get to touch animals while you're in undergrad.

Dave Blanks:

Right. That's what you wanted.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah. Vet school, you ain't touching an animal until you get to vet school.

Dave Blanks:

Touching books.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

Touching the mouse on your computer.

Leigha Wright:

It was excessive.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

So I switched.

Dave Blanks:

It's important. Necessary to have veterinarians.

Leigha Wright:

It is.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

It is. And I loved working with my, because I worked with vet students, so I loved that. Loved working with them. But my passion kind of lays with working with these vet tech students.

Dave Blanks:

I got you.

Leigha Wright:

They just get it.

Dave Blanks:

Okay. So where were you most recently before you came into this position?

Leigha Wright:

I was the clinical coordinator for a brick and mortar campus in Texas.

Dave Blanks:

How did you find out about this job? How'd you get here?

Leigha Wright:

So I'm part of the Association of Vet Tech Educators.

Dave Blanks:

Okay.

Leigha Wright:

We are very lucky in our team that Jen Serling is actually the president of it.

Dave Blanks:

Oh.

Leigha Wright:

I know. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity.

Dave Blanks:

Wow.

Leigha Wright:

And she's amazing.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. She's awesome. We have had her on the podcast as well, yeah. Jen is a hoot.

Leigha Wright:

Good. She's amazing.

Dave Blanks:

She's cool.

Leigha Wright:

I was already part of AVTE, and she posted it on the Facebook group.

Dave Blanks:

Okay.

Leigha Wright:

And I was like, well, I'm intrigued.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

So-

Dave Blanks:

So you did it?

Leigha Wright:

The fact that it was for App State within the Appalachian Mountains, I'd been feeling that urge to give back to my community. That's what made me apply. I was like, I love clinical coordinating. It's a happy place. They're allowing me to teach anatomy, which is another happy place.

Dave Blanks:

Cool.

Leigha Wright:

And it's my mountains. So-

Dave Blanks:

Good. Well, we're glad you're connected to the mountains once again, even if you are in Texas.

Leigha Wright:

I know. It's so flat.

Dave Blanks:

I'm not saying Texas is bad.

Leigha Wright:

It ain't bad. It's just different.

Dave Blanks:

A good experience is there. It's different. It's different.

Leigha Wright:

I forgot what the color of green was like. And I come back here and I'm like, oh, yeah, green.

Dave Blanks:

Oh yeah! Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

That's not a cactus. Perfect.

Dave Blanks:

Tell me about experiences, the externships that these students are going to have. And tell me how in the world are you developing this network of locations where you know them well enough to know that a student will match with them? How are you doing that?

Leigha Wright:

Yeah. Most of the places that we'll have will be general practice. Most of it will be companion animals, so small animal cats, dogs.

Dave Blanks:

Okay.

Leigha Wright:

I'm hoping to get a lot more large animal and some exotic clinics.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, I didn't know there were clinics that were specifically for exotic.

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Oh.

Leigha Wright:

A lot of them do mixed, but-

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

I'm hoping. I have a couple that I've already got in contact with.

Dave Blanks:

And these locations are not just North Carolina, although-

Leigha Wright:

No, they're all over.

Dave Blanks:

Primarily starting out. That is more of the students that we're getting. Therefore, those are more of the relationships that you're building with these places in North Carolina. But-

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

You said other states as well?

Leigha Wright:

Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

I'm working with a couple of vet schools so we can have students even in teaching hospitals there, because what's better than teaching vet tech students alongside of the veterinarians, that they'll be that veterinary students, that they'll be working as a team when they get out anyway? So we can teach them how to work as a team while they're still in school.

Dave Blanks:

Cool.

Leigha Wright:

They can learn together.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

I love it. So there'll be a couple of those sites. There's a couple of diagnostic labs. So I'm going to reach out to maybe some zoos. My goal is to make-

Dave Blanks:

Oh, wow.

Leigha Wright:

A connection anywhere that a student is interested.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

Because this field has endless possibilities.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

It's taken me all over the US.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

And I want my students to have those opportunities. And I try to make it a little bit personable. So whenever I talk to clinics, I actually keep notes of their pets, how they interact as a team. We're going to have, luckily, we have Ms. Rebecca Newman.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, yeah.

Leigha Wright:

Who's going to help us with creating some wellbeing content. So that'll be really helpful. We're going to have a packet that goes with the clinics. We're going to help I'm going to try and be as interactive as possible. That way I can match those personalities.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. I got you.

Leigha Wright:

Because obviously an extremely shy student isn't going to thrive at a vet school in those teaching hospitals where it's a lot more. It's busy. It's high energy.

Dave Blanks:

Way more people.

Leigha Wright:

Go, go, go. Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. So what if a student, because they have to do their clinicals. What if they're bringing you a location? They're saying, here's where I want to do it. I mean, are you like, yeah, whatever. Okay. That's fine. I mean, cool. Good. I'm glad you got a place.

Leigha Wright:

There's a process.

Dave Blanks:

Ah okay.

Leigha Wright:

But I do highly encourage that. If they have a place and they're like, I'm really interested in this clinic. I want to work there-

Dave Blanks:

Maybe they already worked there. Maybe they already worked there.

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

I love it.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

All right. Here's my process, guys. We're going to start early. I highly encourage the students to schedule meetings with me whenever they, well, not whenever. I have a very set time, but, because I'm going to watch my own wellbeing as well.

Dave Blanks:

Sure. You got to do it.

Leigha Wright:

But I have it set up so they can schedule meetings with me. We talk about that. I've already had some students who aren't going to be in clinicals for another year.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, wow.

Leigha Wright:

Already be like-

Dave Blanks:

Already talking to you?

Leigha Wright:

Yeah. Already asking about sites. I'm like, awesome. Let's get started.

Dave Blanks:

Cool. Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

Because I'm going to get the paperwork. I've got a process ready to roll.

Dave Blanks:

Leigha, one thing we didn't talk about was your crazy forensic animal history, because we mentioned it before. Is that what you would even call it? Is that something you want to talk about on the podcast or no?

Leigha Wright:

No. We definitely can.

Dave Blanks:

Okay. All right. Okay, cool. Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

So I didn't really like-

Dave Blanks:

You did the clinical coordination thing.

Leigha Wright:

Well-

Dave Blanks:

But before that.

Leigha Wright:

Before the clinical coordination, I started out after graduating vet tech school.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

I didn't like general practice.

Dave Blanks:

Okay.

Leigha Wright:

All of my classmates were going and working in general practice, and I was like, I don't like it.

Dave Blanks:

But you still get to play with animals. What was it you didn't like about it?

Leigha Wright:

It wasn't for me, it wasn't fulfilling something.

Dave Blanks:

[inaudible 00:08:52]. Okay.

Leigha Wright:

And I actually toured University of Kentucky's Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, and they showed me the necropsy suite.

Dave Blanks:

Necropsy.

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Okay.

Leigha Wright:

So necropsy is an autopsy on an animal.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

And because an autopsy is only on humans.

Dave Blanks:

Okay,.

Leigha Wright:

And they showed me the necropsy suite, and I was like, geez, O Pete. This is it. And I actually got a job there and performed necropsies on animals.

Dave Blanks:

What were you trying to figure out?

Leigha Wright:

We would figure out why they died. So if it was a herd animal, that way you ensure herd safety.

Dave Blanks:

Like wasting disease or something that whitetail might get.

Leigha Wright:

We actually had a couple of deer come in. We do a lot of cattle. Lot of horses. Lots of cats and dogs figuring out why they died. It might be a closure for the client, or it might be the veterinarian is stumped.

Dave Blanks:

Oh!

Leigha Wright:

And just curiosity.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. Wow. Okay.

Leigha Wright:

So really fun.

Dave Blanks:

Cool. How long did you do that?

Leigha Wright:

At the University of Kentucky, about a year. And then I moved to South Carolina. This is what this degree does for you.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. You have moved to many locations.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

So I moved to South Carolina. I was the first female necropsy tech they'd ever had in the state and worked for Clemson Diagnostic Lab. And then I got a call from a vet school, Lincoln Memorial University. Went up to Tennessee, moved there, worked in their anatomy lab, and then I ended up in Texas.

Dave Blanks:

Dang.

Leigha Wright:

So it can take you all over.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. Really. Well, that's very interesting. I thought we had to share the necropsy background because yeah, it's just unusual. I was totally unfamiliar with it.

Leigha Wright:

It's okay. I actually had a student, this is our first semester of the program. I've already had one student.

Dave Blanks:

Right. We're in it right now.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah. We just started it.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah, I know. Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

And one of the students, after scheduling a meeting with me, we were talking and they're interested in necropsy.

Dave Blanks:

Were you like-

Leigha Wright:

And I was like, yay.

Dave Blanks:

Shed a tear.

Leigha Wright:

I was like, do you want to see all the bones around my house? I have a squirrel in a jar. What do you want? I'll show it. It was so good to hear that.

Dave Blanks:

Well, I'm glad you're inspiring people with all kinds of aspirations and you're supporting people from all walks of life. The program's going to reach not only in North Carolina, but nationwide could be worldwide. So you could be dealing with people-

Leigha Wright:

We've had some interest.

Dave Blanks:

In different countries. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to cover before we get into the animals that mean the most to you in your life? That's what we're going to end on.

Leigha Wright:

Oh, that'll be a good one.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. Not the squirrel in the jar. I don't know. That one might be, but.

Leigha Wright:

It's not. It's just a random squirrel in a jar. I don't know.

Dave Blanks:

Fair enough.

Leigha Wright:

It's just my life. I want to reiterate I'm so happy to be a part of this. Not just this program that has the importance of wellbeing, the amazing team they've put together, but it's also helping a community that means everything to me. I was raised by these mountains. It's my way of giving back. And I love furthering the veterinary field. And also just having the little dash of these are my mountains.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

So.

Dave Blanks:

I like that too.

Leigha Wright:

It has been extremely rewarding already. And we are not even halfway through the first semester. So it's going to be good.

Dave Blanks:

The animals in your life, we talk often about the human animal bond and that connection and how powerful it is between people. So do you have animals that you are connected with right now?

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Tell me about these animals.

Leigha Wright:

So first I want to start with a dog who has passed. He moved everywhere with me. I worked for free an entire summer to get this dog. Yeah, I know. I fell in love. I lived in a small town and he was an Airedale Terrier.

Dave Blanks:

What? An Airedale?

Leigha Wright:

Airedale Terrier.

Dave Blanks:

Okay. All right.

Leigha Wright:

The king of the terriers.

Dave Blanks:

I've seen this dog. Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

They're a regal.

Leigha Wright:

He was amazing. He went through vet tech school with me. He actually had heartworm disease and we treated it in my vet tech program.

Dave Blanks:

Wow.

Leigha Wright:

So he was a part of my education, and he traveled to all these places I say I've been, he was right there.

Dave Blanks:

What was his name?

Leigha Wright:

Scruff.

Dave Blanks:

Scruff.

Leigha Wright:

Yes. He's now tattooed on my leg.

Dave Blanks:

Aw. All right. Never forget Scruff.

Leigha Wright:

No. So we keep him, but he started my passion for Airedale Terriers.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

And I'm all about adopting, rescuing, all of that. So I have two Airedale mixes. One of them came from the mountains of Tennessee. Her name is Sophie Jean. She's an Airedale Lab cross.

Dave Blanks:

Okay.

Leigha Wright:

She is my little shadow and I love her.

Dave Blanks:

Cool.

Leigha Wright:

And then we have my wild child, Sam, who is an Airedale mix that came from the streets of Lufkin, Texas.

Dave Blanks:

All right.

Leigha Wright:

He's a hot mess.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. All right. So he's off on his own. Is he a little more independent?

Leigha Wright:

No.

Dave Blanks:

No, he's not?

Leigha Wright:

No.

Dave Blanks:

He's just crazy?

Leigha Wright:

He has to be right behind me.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, okay.

Leigha Wright:

So working remote. My office is also my guest room.

Dave Blanks:

Yep.

Leigha Wright:

I have my desk set up and there's a bed behind me. And it might as well be his bed because in every single meeting that I take, he's laying on that bed behind me. He's got about 10 toys up there. He brings a new one every day. He has to be in the same room. And we just tell him, I'm like, "All right, let's go to work. And he runs and gets on that bed."

Dave Blanks:

Aw.

Leigha Wright:

So.

Dave Blanks:

Well, it sounds like you have a good support system. Speaking of wellbeing at your house. It makes me want to learn more about Airdale Terriers. Why the Airdale?

Leigha Wright:

Because of Scruff.

Dave Blanks:

Just the little... The Scruff, because just Scruff.

Leigha Wright:

They're scruffy. I really liked the nub, the no tail thing, but that is docked.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

My two mixes are not docked.

Dave Blanks:

Right.

Leigha Wright:

They got full tails, so they knock everything off the counter.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah, sure.

Leigha Wright:

But the fact that they're so stubborn.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Leigha Wright:

But also so playful.

Dave Blanks:

Well, Leigha, thank you for your time. I really appreciate you being here. And if people want to contact you, the Vet Tech website is vettech.appstate.edu. And your email address is on here, but tell me what it is.

Leigha Wright:

Yes. [email protected].

Dave Blanks:

Wrightld1. Leigha, thanks so much. I really appreciate you.

Leigha Wright:

Thank you. This was so much fun.

Dave Blanks:

Good. I'm glad. It's good... I'm glad you got to come back to the mountains in person for this.

Leigha Wright:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Yes.

Leigha Wright:

I have loved it.

Dave Blanks:

If you love animals, a degree in veterinary technology may be just what you need in your life, put that love for animals to work for you. No matter your busy schedule, you'll learn to capably assist veterinarians and prepare for certification exams to take advantage of a flourishing job market and ensure that pets get the care they need. You can find out more by going online to the vet tech website, that's vettech.appstate.edu. Vet Tech Talk is at production of University Communications here at Appalachian State. Check out more of our podcasts by going online to podcasts.appstate.edu. I'm Dave Blanks. Thanks so much for listening to Vet Tech Talk and have a great day.

On this episode of Vet Tech Talk we welcome Rebecca Newman. Rebecca is the Wellbeing Coordinator at App State’s Veterinary Technology Program. She is a frequent volunteer in the veterinary community, with a focus on wellbeing and advocacy. She and her husband live on a farm in rural Colorado with their 17 well-loved animals.

Transcript

Dave:

Welcome to the podcast, Rebecca.

Rebecca Newman:

Thank you so much, Dave.

Dave:

Yeah, I'm glad you're here. So are you ready to get, can we get started? Is that cool with you?

Rebecca Newman:

I would love to.

Dave:

Let's jump in. So Rebecca Newman, your official title is the wellbeing coordinator for the Veterinary Technology program here at App State.

Rebecca Newman:

That is correct.

Dave:

All right. So have you been a wellbeing coordinator for a veterinary technology program before?

Rebecca Newman:

I have not.

Dave:

Oh, new experience. All right.

Rebecca Newman:

New experience.

Dave:

Excellent. So what does that entail, being a wellbeing coordinator? We'll get into a little bit about your background, but just brief overview, what's your gig here at Appalachian?

Rebecca Newman:

So it is a new role in veterinary technology programs,

Dave:

Okay.

Rebecca Newman:

And I believe App State has the very first wellbeing coordinator in the United States for a veterinary technology program. And this is huge because wellbeing is an area that has been kind of a side note in vet med, and we are bringing it to the forefront. App State is leading the way.

Dave:

Awesome. How, Rebecca, did you come into this position? Where'd you start? Was it in the world of veterinary medicine somehow,

Rebecca Newman:

Sure.

Dave:

Or?

Rebecca Newman:

Well, actually, my first career was in clinical psychology. I worked with college students at Rutgers University.

Dave:

Okay.

Rebecca Newman:

And I wanted to become a psychologist. My path changed over time and I actually went back to school to become a veterinary technician. So I am a,

Dave:

Really?

Rebecca Newman:

A certified veterinary technician.

Dave:

How uniquely qualified are you for this?

Rebecca Newman:

I have to say, Dave, these are three of my greatest passions. One, veterinary medicine, two, wellbeing, and three, education and working with students.

Dave:

Awesome. Wow. Okay. Well that's super interesting to hear. So let's see, how did you find out about this particular position?

Rebecca Newman:

Well, so I live in Colorado.

Dave:

Oh, okay. All right. Cool.

Rebecca Newman:

Yeah, I was student affairs director at a program there, and I left the program to spend a year working on my farm.

Dave:

Cool.

Rebecca Newman:

And,

Dave:

What kind of farm?

Rebecca Newman:

Oh, we basically take in as many old animals as possible. They don't make us any money, and that just provides extreme happiness to my husband and myself.

Dave:

That's great. Is it like agritourism in a way? Do you have people come by or volunteer or?

Rebecca Newman:

You know what, that's down the road.

Dave:

Okay. All Right.

Rebecca Newman:

Dream big.

Dave:

Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

For right now it is a, we have 18 animals.

Dave:

Awesome.

Rebecca Newman:

And goats.

Dave:

Okay.

Rebecca Newman:

One-eyed horse, chickens, two cats.

Dave:

Okay. Have you seen, okay, there's this lady on Instagram, I feel like it's called Useless Farm, is what her name is.

Rebecca Newman:

Ooh. I should talk to her.

Dave:

She's a hoot. She's really funny. She has this super aggressive ostrich who, I'm think his name, Karen, and I swear that's what it's called. I'm just going to Google it right now. But yes, she's really, really funny and I highly recommend her. Some of it may be not safe for work type stuff, but isn't that what it's called? Useless Farm.

Rebecca Newman:

I would say we make no money.

Dave:

Anyway. Well, that's cool that you're doing that. I love that. So you're actively doing that, but now this is an online program, the veterinary technology program. So you can live in Colorado.

Rebecca Newman:

Exactly.

Dave:

Even though you're in studio in Boone. How many times have you been to Boone?

Rebecca Newman:

Ooh, this is my first time.

Dave:

What do you think?

Rebecca Newman:

I love it.

Dave:

We have more green than you all have,

Rebecca Newman:

Oh, yes.

Dave:

In Colorado.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

But your mountains are super dramatic. I mean, there is that.

Rebecca Newman:

Our mountains are dramatic and yet maybe not as accessible.

Dave:

Yeah, they're not. I know. That's what I've heard. I had friends that moved to Colorado and they were like, God, I just missed the green.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

I miss it being such a easy thing to do to get out on the trail. It's slightly more of an ordeal or you plan,

Rebecca Newman:

It is much more of an ordeal. I live on the eastern plains.

Dave:

Okay.

Rebecca Newman:

So very rural. I live on a dirt road, off of a dirt road.

Dave:

Love it.

Rebecca Newman:

And so I love coming to Boone and seeing the small towns around here.

Dave:

Oh, yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

And the mountains and the green that,

Dave:

Have you been to Grandfather?

Rebecca Newman:

Not yet.

Dave:

Oh, you got to go to Grandfather.

Rebecca Newman:

But I am planning.

Dave:

Okay, cool.

Rebecca Newman:

Planning it.

Dave:

That sounds like a interesting intersection of passions that have brought you into this position. So as far as you interacting with students, has that occurred yet? Because this program is brand new, so,

Rebecca Newman:

Right.

Dave:

Yeah. Have you started your work?

Rebecca Newman:

Well, one of the amazing things happened last night. We had an in-person meet and greet for our students.

Dave:

Here on campus.

Rebecca Newman:

Here on campus in the solarium.

Dave:

Nice.

Rebecca Newman:

And it was a great success. And when I say success, I am not talking about huge numbers of students.

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

I'm talking about the connections that are made.

Dave:

Yeah. Right.

Rebecca Newman:

We met students who drove from two hours away, three hours away, because they wanted to make those connections.

Dave:

Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

And that is one of the essential components of wellbeing and something that research has shown and we have seen in our field just help students thrive and leads to a sustainable career.

Dave:

Yeah. So how do you address that with an online program?

Rebecca Newman:

That,

Dave:

Because the connection,

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

Is in person that you made yesterday was it you said in the solarium.

Rebecca Newman:

Yesterday. Yeah.

Dave:

That's not going to always be easily achievable.

Rebecca Newman:

Correct.

Dave:

That's quite an interesting challenge for you.

Rebecca Newman:

Well, I love challenges.

Dave:

All right. Good.

Rebecca Newman:

And most importantly, I work with an amazing team here at App State. The vet tech team as well as all of the other faculty and staff that I've met on campus have been amazingly supportive. So,

Dave:

Hey, I'm on your side.

Rebecca Newman:

Thank You.

Dave:

All right. Yes.

Rebecca Newman:

Thank you.

Dave:

Yes.

Rebecca Newman:

So I'll tap into any resources I can.

Dave:

Please. Yeah. Whatever I can record for you, allow me to help.

Rebecca Newman:

I will say that during the height of the pandemic, I was kind of in charge of moving a vet tech program online that was brick and mortar.

Dave:

Oh.

Rebecca Newman:

And temporarily we moved it online.

Dave:

They had not signed up for that.

Rebecca Newman:

No.

Dave:

Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

No.

Dave:

Gotcha.

Rebecca Newman:

So seeing, learning the lessons from that experience, I couldn't be more excited at all of the new ways that students can connect online and feel like a community.

Dave:

Right. It is way easier just because of the growing pains that have to do with adopting new technology. Zoom is so much more of a normalized thing than it was pre pandemic. So yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

Yeah. That is an advantage. So is that part of you all's work, or are you having like, we're going to do a little mixer here and we're going to talk about X, Y, Z.

Rebecca Newman:

Absolutely. So this semester being the first semester of the program, we're taking things one step at a time,

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

And planning things out, getting feedback from students, faculty, and staff. But for example, we are having a virtual meet and greet next week.

Dave:

Cool.

Rebecca Newman:

Which,

Dave:

Not everybody could drive here, I'm sure.

Rebecca Newman:

Exactly.

Dave:

Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

Exactly. And that is a huge, huge thing that we want to keep in mind is accessibility. So giving equal access, equitable access to our students, and finding ways to ensure that connections can be made by each and every student, faculty, and staff member of our program.

Dave:

Wellbeing is a vital part of veterinary technology, veterinary medicine, but it's not something that was a big emphasis in the programs in veterinary medicine, veterinary technology. How is Apps program addressing it? I mean, I know we have you, but what does that say? I guess that says that App thinks it's pretty important.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes. I mean, I think that's one of the reasons I came here is because you all are leading the way, and really,

Dave:

We are leading the way.

Rebecca Newman:

We,

Dave:

Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes, you're right. Thank you.

Dave:

Yeah. You're welcome.

Rebecca Newman:

We are leading the wave and paving the way for what I believe will be a better future for the veterinary field.

Dave:

You shared some powerful information about the challenges that veterinary technicians face when it comes to their wellbeing. So can you share some of that with our listeners?

Rebecca Newman:

Absolutely. So there are a couple of unique challenges faced in veterinary medicine. One is, I would say moral distress is the term that we use that is felt by veterinary professionals. And that occurs when, let's say someone comes and wishes they could give their dog that $5,000 surgery.

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

They don't have the funds.

Dave:

Yes.

Rebecca Newman:

And so the dog ends up being euthanized.

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

And that has an impact on everyone, especially those who are working in the field and see that on a daily or weekly basis.

Dave:

Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

So moral distress and compassion fatigue. This field is filled with beautiful people who want to help animals, and they would give the shirt off their back to help an animal, whether it is a dog, a cat, llama, snake, you name it.

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

It really runs the gamut. And while that is an amazing characteristic to have, it also means that there is compassion fatigue in the field.

Dave:

It's a vulnerability.

Rebecca Newman:

It is.

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

It is. It's,

Dave:

It's a superpower, but it's also a vulnerability.

Rebecca Newman:

And Dave, I love that you said it's a superpower. That's what I get to do as wellbeing coordinator, is help students, faculty, and staff recognize those superpowers, recognize their character strengths, and be aware of when those superpowers are maybe doing a little bit more harm than the good that they can do.

Dave:

So Rebecca, you did tell me that a lot of the people that are, and we kind of touched on it, that are attracted to this program, that are built for this are in fact introverts. And you yourself you said were an introvert too.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

Even though you're talking to me, we're communicating very freely. So can you tell me a little bit about that?

Rebecca Newman:

I sure can. I would consider myself an introvert. I love meeting new people. I love speaking in public. And yet,

Dave:

Wow. Yeah. You're a weird introvert.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes. However, not as uncommon as you'd think.

Dave:

Sell me on it. Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

So at the end of those periods of extroversion, I recharge by going to a quiet space, spending time alone, practicing meditation, things like that. Those are all parts of my wellbeing. And it's not that everyone in this field is an introvert by any means.

Dave:

Sure. No.

Rebecca Newman:

But it tends, research does show that two of the common characteristics of veterinary professionals is introversion, and also we score high on perfectionism. So those are two traits that I keep in mind when I'm thinking about developing our wellbeing program here at App State for vet tech.

Dave:

Absolutely. Well, as far as overriding theories or places you come back to as far as wellbeing, what are you drawing from? Is it like cognitive behavioral therapy or?

Rebecca Newman:

Oh, Dave, I love your questions and,

Dave:

Oh, thanks.

Rebecca Newman:

Positive psychology is really what guides me today.

Dave:

Okay. Let's define that.

Rebecca Newman:

So positive psychology looks at how someone is functioning and flourishing in their lives as opposed to what we used to do in psychology.

Dave:

Look at how you're failing.

Rebecca Newman:

Yeah.

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

And what disorder do you have? I mean, I have a bunch of disorders. Does that help me? Maybe a little bit, but what really helps is identifying ways I can thrive in this world. I should back up and say that Dr. Martin Seligman is the founder of positive psychology of University of Pennsylvania, and he's had just a phenomenal impact on the direction of wellbeing. With positive psychology, this is the framework that I am taking into the program and for not just students, it really starts with our faculty and staff, ensuring that they have the resources, the tools to flourish in their lives.

Dave:

So you're going to be part of the staff.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

So that means you have to take care of yourself.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

You said you like to recharge alone, but does that include your animals? Do you feel like you're alone when you're with your animals?

Rebecca Newman:

Oh, that's a really great question.

Dave:

Because are you an introvert if you just spending time with animals? Maybe there should be a different term for that.

Rebecca Newman:

I know. I mean, I think I'm an introvert with extroverted tendencies, perhaps.

Dave:

Yeah, yeah, sure. But if you're an introvert and then you spend time by yourself away from people, but you're with your animals, you're still being social in a way. I mean,

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

Well, so here's what I really want to get at is tell me about the animals that are in your life. Unless there's anything else that you want to cover on the clinical side, on the wellbeing side that the program, we're so glad to have you. We're very excited about this program.

Rebecca Newman:

Thank you.

Dave:

Yeah, I'm glad you're here. Glad you're a part of Appalachian State now. But tell me about these animals. Tell me about your farm.

Rebecca Newman:

All right.

Dave:

Does your farm have a name?

Rebecca Newman:

The Newman Ranch.

Dave:

All right.

Rebecca Newman:

Yes.

Dave:

Makes sense. All right.

Rebecca Newman:

And it has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl to live on a farm. Currently, we have 18 animals, and we have a one-eyed horse named Gulliver. Just a beautiful creature. He was originally a wild Mustang, trained early on to be a therapy horse, and he's got to be about 30 years old now.

Dave:

Wow.

Rebecca Newman:

Knowing that everyone, even animals need connections, we got him some goat friends. So now we have Gulliver and the goats, our six goats. And feel free to use that as a band name.

Dave:

Please. Yeah, it sounds like a cartoon that my kids would really love. Gulliver and the goats.

Rebecca Newman:

Gulliver and the goats. And I have to say, being with the animals is when I am just at peace and I can be completely in the present, which I think is, it's just an amazing tool in my toolkit for refreshing and for fueling up for what I can give to this program.

Dave:

The bond between humans and animals is something that we touch on a lot in this podcast. And I think it's very clear that you have a strong bond with these animals.

Rebecca Newman:

Extremely,

Dave:

Yeah.

Rebecca Newman:

Strong. And I haven't even mentioned my dogs, one of them being the canine love of my life.

Dave:

Oh, wow.

Rebecca Newman:

Moby.

Dave:

Moby.

Rebecca Newman:

Moby. He is 13 years old. He's getting a little gray around,

Rebecca Newman:

Yes. And I guess I do want to just say that I see the importance for our students, our faculty, and our staff. I see the importance of that human animal bond, and it is such a beautiful connection. And at the same time, it's just as important to encourage human to human connections.

Dave:

Right.

Rebecca Newman:

And so that will be a big part of the program as well. Relationships are one of the things that really predict our happiness, our ability to thrive, our ability to, our resiliency. And so relationships and connections, belonging, those will all be themes of the wellbeing program.

Dave:

How do people find out more about you? How do people get in touch with you?

Rebecca Newman:

Oh, well, please feel free to email me is a great way, [email protected].

Dave:

Okay.

Rebecca Newman:

You can also look on the App State vet tech page, which is vettech.appstate.edu. And,

Dave:

Yeah, it has, I think your picture's on here with how many of your animals are featured here?

Rebecca Newman:

I think you,

Dave:

Let's see. Oh, I see. So is that Gulliver?

Rebecca Newman:

That's Gulliver.

Dave:

Oh, okay. Perfect. Well, to see Gulliver, yeah, check out vettech.appstate.edu. And Rebecca, thank you for your time. I really appreciate you being here, and I hope you enjoy your time in Boone, and I hope you can go back to Colorado and recharge, but then that you can come back here sometime soon.

Rebecca Newman:

Oh, Dave, thank you so much for having me today. It was a real pleasure.

Hannah Huff joins us for this episode.  If you are going to be a student in the Vet Tech program you will most assuredly be talking to Hannah or another Academic Advisor here at Appalachian State. Hannah shares the ways in which she supports her students as well as her advice for navigating this fully online program. 

Transcript:

Dave Blanks:

This is Vet Tech Talk, a podcast about Appalachian State University's online four-year Bachelor of Science in Veterinary Technology degree program.

Hello there. I'm Dave Blanks, and I work here at App State in University Communications. On this episode, we're joined by Hannah Huff. Hannah has been affiliated with Appalachian State for the past seven years as a student, a graduate assistant, and now an academic advisor as well. She graduated in 2019 with her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Human Services, and then returned to App in 2020 to pursue graduate school. She graduated in 2022 with her Master of Arts in Student Affairs Administration, and she has a background in academic advising from her graduate assistantship in the Advising and Orientation Center, as well as experience serving college students using theory-to-practice frameworks, which we get into in the conversation today.

In this role currently, Hannah is very excited to expand her advising skill set to learn about the veterinary profession and to support students as they navigate this fully online program. Now here is my conversation with Hannah. Hey Hannah. How's it going?

Hannah Huff:

Hi, good. How are you?

Dave Blanks:

I'm great. Thank you for coming down today. We appreciate you being here. Let's start out with what's your job at Appalachian State? What do you do here? You're an academic advisor, but specifically for the Vet Tech program, correct?

Hannah Huff:

Right. So I am an academic advisor for the Vet Tech program, which is in the College of Arts and Sciences. So, my position is actually pretty unique in that I am split between the College of Arts and Sciences and what's called the Cash Office, and then the Vet Tech team. So, I have my own caseload of Vet tech students, but I also get to learn all of the roles that go into the College of Arts and Science advising and work with second degree students, work with readmission students and learn all the processes and procedures there as well, so I get a good, well-rounded set of skills with this.

Dave Blanks:

Gotcha. So with Tech, you're advising 70 students. That seems to me like a lot of people to be advising, but I understand it's kind of a small caseload for you.

Hannah Huff:

Yeah, it's generally pretty small. In my previous role as a graduate assistant, I had at one time about a hundred, maybe a little bit more than that, but 70 right now, and that'll probably increase over the coming semesters when we have more students join the program and more students actually officially declare their major.

Dave Blanks:

Gotcha.

Hannah Huff:

Right now I'm coasting at 70, but we'll get a little bit more over time. All right.

Dave Blanks:

Good plan. So I'm a student, or I want to be a student in the Vet Tech program. How would I encounter you?

Hannah Huff:

Yeah, so generally, I will be the one who reaches out to students in terms of making appointments. I do have students who reach out to me with general questions that they have, either about their classes or about things at App State and how things kind of work here at the school because-

Dave Blanks:

These are students already enrolled?

Hannah Huff:

Already enrolled. Yes. And there were students who were interested in the program who weren't yet enrolled, who were still contacting me, asking me questions. So, I would be able to point them in the right direction or give them whatever answer I could to help them. Obviously, we want them to join the program. We're very excited about it. And anything I can do to encourage them to apply or encourage them to enroll in their classes, I'm going to help them do.

Dave Blanks:

And I see they probably found you through the website, which is vet tech.appstate.edu. But there you are right there with your two doggos. Okay, so they would end up coming to you and did you say that every student is required actually?

Hannah Huff:

Yes. So every student will be required to meet with me for advising to get their PIN number for registration for the next semester. So, we will talk through classes for the next semester. I also have made planners for the student, so I've kind of mapped out a rough idea of their progression through the degree so that they have a rough idea of what classes to take in certain semesters and how long it will take them to graduate based on any transfer credit that they have, kind of what they're starting with and those sorts of things.

Dave Blanks:

Gotcha. So are you dealing with students who are having academic problems? Say there's a student who's really struggling with one class. Is that somebody that's going to come to you or that you will reach out to, or how does that work?

Hannah Huff:

Yeah, absolutely. So during my advising appointments, I always like to ask students, how are you doing this semester? What is going well? What are you struggling with? What challenges are you facing? And if they are having any issues with a class, if they're not understanding content, if they have other things going on in their personal life that's kind of inhibiting them in their class, I'm there to help connect them with resources on campus. And maybe it's the tutoring center, maybe it's peer academic coaching, maybe it's the counseling center. Whatever I can do to kind of point them in the right direction, I can be that for that student.

Dave Blanks:

Awesome. Advice for students who are joining the program?

Hannah Huff:

Yeah, I would say anybody who's interested, reach out to the team on the website. If you see Virginia on there, she's the director. If you see me, reach out and introduce yourself, say that you're interested, let us know, like, "Hey, I've worked in the field for 20 years. I would love to come back to school, or I really want to shift gears in terms of my career. I would love to come join your program." Just introduce yourself. We love that. And we will get you set up in the right direction in terms of deadlines to apply and reviewing transcripts and those sorts of things.

Dave Blanks:

So email's the best way.

Hannah Huff:

Email's the best way or phone call, but students tend to gravitate towards email more often than not.

Dave Blanks:

Scary to talk to people, isn't it? We're doing it right now. So what about somebody who is already in the program? What would be your advice to that individual?

Hannah Huff:

I would say kind of the same thing. Reach out to your contacts, make sure you know everybody on the team, know who does what so that you can always ask for help when you need it. There's no problem in asking for help. That's what we're here for. We're here to help you. We're here to help guide you, and we love talking to students. That's kind of why we're all in this. So just make sure you know who's on the team.

Also, utilize your peers. Your peers might have other experiences that you don't, and you might be able to gain some perspective from them as well. So just make sure you know who your contacts are. Also, look at App State's resources. Even though you are an online student, you do have a lot of resources available to you. So look at those resources and see what you have available to you that might help in any kind of situation that you're in.

Dave Blanks:

So how did you end up getting in this program? What brought you to the veterinary technology program? I don't know. Was it something that you were passionate about, or?

Hannah Huff:

Yeah. I mean, so when I was in grad school, our final semester was dedicated to job searching. I always knew that I would love to stay at App State.

Dave Blanks:

Sure.

Hannah Huff:

I've been here for so long, and I've got great connections here. So any kind of new advisor position that was being advertised, I would apply. And the more that I looked into vet tech, the more I saw I could really grow in this position because it's a brand new program and I get to be a part of shaping that. That's something that a lot of advisors don't get the chance to do, and I'm already seeing that I have a very strong voice on this team, and I can really shape how this program turns out, which is very cool.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah, I'm excited just hearing you talk about that. You don't have to pick, "Oh, well, this is how we used to do it," or, "This is the way it's always been done." No, you don't have that to deal with. I mean, you are under the College of Arts and Sciences, so they have their own practices and stuff, and there's stuff that you have to do. But I've heard the same sort of thing from Mary Beth McKee. When we talked to Mary Beth, she was really excited because it was a new program. Everybody's got that energy. So tell me about these two dogs here that I see on the Vet tech site. These are animals that are important to you in your life?

Hannah Huff:

Yes. Those are my dogs back home, my family dogs. So my chocolate lab, that's Bruno, and then Darby, she is a rescue. And we're not quite sure exactly what she is, but-

Dave Blanks:

She's hound-ish, right?

Hannah Huff:

She's definitely got some hound.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, yeah.

Hannah Huff:

We always say she's a lab hound, but I really want to send her DNA off to get tested to know exactly what she is.

Dave Blanks:

You can do that.

Hannah Huff:

Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. Okay. So we do talk about Bruno. Is that okay?

Hannah Huff:

Yes, we do talk about Bruno.

Dave Blanks:

And Darby is such a good name, but now you got a job, you got a gig, are you going to get another animal, do you think?

Hannah Huff:

I think I am. I've been thinking about getting a cat just because I'm working full-time and they're pretty self-sufficient.

Dave Blanks:

They're fine with that. Yeah.

Hannah Huff:

So, I think I'm going to look into getting a kitten probably from the Humane Society up here at some point.

Dave Blanks:

Awesome.

Hannah Huff:

But want to establish more of a routine first.

Dave Blanks:

Sure. Ease into that. It is a big responsibility, but yes, I've had cats that were more dogs and that they would follow you around, you could go hike and they would follow you out into the woods. I had a path near my house and the cat would follow me that way. So it's like it depends on the cat.

Hannah Huff:

Yeah, and that's the good thing about getting a kitten too. You can train them at a young age. I want to...

Dave Blanks:

You're real optimistic, thinking you can train your kitten.

Hannah Huff:

Maybe I could try to leash train him. I don't know.

Dave Blanks:

I don't know. Maybe I have seen that. I follow this Instagram account called Great Grams of Gary. Have you ever heard of this?

Hannah Huff:

I haven't.

Dave Blanks:

I don't know how I happened upon it, but Great Grams of Gary is just this cat that does these incredible snow adventures with this guy who's like cross-country skiing, and he's forever doing some kind of wild adventure, and he is always got Gary the cat with him, so.

Hannah Huff:

I love that.

Dave Blanks:

It's very cool.

Hannah Huff:

That's so great.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. Anyway, weird aside, I guess, but check out Great Grams of Gary. All right. So in looking at your bio also, Hannah, you have a background in serving college students using theory-to-practice frameworks. So that sounds pretty impressive. Can you tell me what that is?

Hannah Huff:

Sure. So in my grad program, we cover higher education theory, and there's a lot of different theory of how you interact with college students and what college students need based on their development and things like that. So, I use different theories to guide me in my practice.

One of them being the theory of self-authorship and knowing that students are in charge of their life. And so I want to meet them where they are at developmentally and kind of see, "This is the path that they chose for themselves, they are authoring their path to become a veterinary technician, and how can I guide them through my practice as an advisor to make sure that they have all the resources and guidance that they need to be successful?" There's not a one size fits all when it comes to advising students or even just being around students in general. Any type of job you have in higher education, whether you're supporting students through clubs or you're an advisor, you're a professor, every student has their own experiences coming into higher education. So, it's important to kind of see where they're at developmentally and what you can do to support them in what they need.

Dave Blanks:

So if somebody wants to reach out to you, Hannah, I think we already said it, but what's the best way they would get in touch with you?

Hannah Huff:

The best way would either be through email. My email is linked on the site or my work phone.

Dave Blanks:

The website once again is vettech.appstate.edu.

Hannah Huff:

Thank you so much for having me.

Dave Blanks:

Hannah, I really appreciate you being here, and hopefully you can come back sometime.

Hannah Huff:

Absolutely.

Dave Blanks:

Maybe next year, maybe after your very first year, and I could be like, "Okay, what did you learn, Hannah?"

Hannah Huff:

Yeah, absolutely.

Dave Blanks:

What are those theories still holding strong for you? Have you added some theories? We'll see what happens. Hannah, thanks so much.

Hannah Huff:

Thank you.

Dave Blanks:

If you love animals, a degree in veterinary technology, maybe just what you need in your life. Put that love for animals to work for you. No matter your busy schedule, you'll learn to capably assist veterinarians and prepare for certification exams to take advantage of a flourishing job market and ensure that pets get the care they need.

You can find out more by going online to the Vet Tech website. That's vet tech.app state.edu.

Vet Tech Talk is a production of University communications here at Appalachian State. Check out more of our podcasts by going online to podcasts.app state.edu.

I'm Dave Blanks. Thanks so much for listening to Vet Tech Talk and have a great day.

This is Vet Tech Talk, a podcast about Appalachian State University's online four year bachelor of science in veterinary technology degree program. Welcome back! I'm your host, Dave Blanks! In this episode, you’ll hear some familiar voices as well as a new one! I welcome back Program Director Virginia Corrigan and Assistant Program Director Jen Serling to the studio and we meet Lead Instructional Designer, Mary Beth McKee for the very first time. We’ll learn more about her role in the program and hear about how she joined the team as well as the animals in her life. We also discuss building a brand new program with compassionate experts, dive deeper into curriculum and explore a few of the many career paths the program will prepare you for. Now, onto the conversation!

Dave:

I'm here with the entire crew from the Appalachian State Veterinary Technology Program, a new program here at App just starting this year. We have Jen Serling. Hello, Jen. How are you?

Jen Serling:

Hello. Thank you.

Dave:

I'm glad you're back. Welcome back to studio.

Jen Serling:

Thank you.

Dave:

Yes, Virginia Corrigan is here also, Virginia, you're the Program Director. Jen, the Assistant Program Director. Hello, Virginia.

Virginia Corrigan:

Good morning.

Dave:

How are you?

Virginia Corrigan:

I'm fantastic. How are you today?

Dave:

Most excellent. I'm very good. But we're joined by someone that we haven't had in studio before, Mary Beth McKee. Hello, Mary Beth.

Mary Beth McKee:

Hello there.

Dave:

How do you do?

Mary Beth McKee:

I'm doing fantabulous.

Dave:

Well, good. So you've been at Appalachian State since '99?

Mary Beth McKee:

Yes, a number of years.

Dave:

Yes, right. And you've worked in a variety of places on campus. What have you been doing on campus and what are you doing now with the Veterinary Technology Program?

Mary Beth McKee:

Well, I can remember actually, when the Chancellor first announced the program, and I was surprised because I was like, "Veterinary Technology, how is it I've never heard about this?"

Dave:

Right?

Mary Beth McKee:

I'm a dog lover, I love this stuff. And I started talking to people and I worked in the Center for Academic Excellence.

Dave:

What is the Center for Academic Excellence do? Does it ensure that we're academically excellent at Appalachian State?

Mary Beth McKee:

Obviously, that's the mission statement. But it's looking for ways to help faculty, staff, and students. So teaching with technology is a big core component, but also faculty development.

Dave:

Oh. You're starting at the ground floor of this program, which is something different than what you've done previously.

Mary Beth McKee:

Absolutely. In my previous role, you would get assigned to a college like Arts and Sciences or Health Sciences, and you support them, faculty, for all their technology needs. So with this program, I changed titles. I'm the Lead Instructional Designer.

But what appeals to me is working with faculty from the ground up and just really saying, "What is your course about? Where do we want to take these students? What's an engaging way?" Being a fully online program, it's a different ballgame.

Dave:

Absolutely. So what are some things you're excited about?

Mary Beth McKee:

Well, the thing with the new program, Dave, it's just so dang new. You know what I mean?

Dave:

It's true. You can't describe it any other way really.

Mary Beth McKee:

When we joke about being the gang and the team, you're looking at them. We haven't hired a lot of faculty yet. But one thing I have really loved is the veterinary community, they have to be the warmest, most compassionate people who really care about putting good people in the field. These are compassionate people who want it to succeed. So it is great to partner with them and say, "What's your course about? Tell me about that." And looking for ways to help that content be engaging for students, even though they might be in Tucson, Arizona.

Dave:

Right, absolutely. As it's a case with Jen, which we learned on her visit with us. So it does seem like Jen and Virginia, and y'all could possibly speak to this, these people are so compassionate. Y'all really care so much about what you're doing. How are y'all going to find people that care as much as you do? How do you interview somebody and decide if they care about it?

Jen Serling:

It's definitely a process. I mean, it's a pretty rigorous interview process to go through and it'll be probably something very similar in regards to faculty. But we've just hired a Clinical Coordinator, we're doing the wellbeing interviews is for the Wellbeing Coordinator as well. And it's just, it's their whole aura and their persona about them. And I don't know, at least with me, I get a feeling.

Dave:

Virginia, is there something that you can pick up on about somebody where you're like, "Yeah, this is the kind of person we want in this program?"

Virginia Corrigan:

Yeah, well, I think the point in general of compassionate people choosing to be in the veterinary field is a very important one and salient one.

So I have this level of trust in other veterinary professionals, especially those who have been doing this for a while. They've been there, they know what it's like. They know that it's challenging but it's also just the most incredibly rewarding profession out there. So there's that bond that's inherently present, I think, as a veterinarian, talking to another veterinarian, as a veterinarian talking to another veterinary professional.

But then, yeah, I think Jen's right. I think someone's compassion and how much they care really shines through. Even if that's over Zoom, you just can feel it. And it's the way they talk about students, it's the way they talk about their own pets. It's the way they've talked about their career and what they really loved and what drives them. And when we hear those things, we light up on the other end. So we're really excited to keep that process going. We've been doing a ton of interviews and talking to just some phenomenal people, and so it's been exciting.

Dave:

How many people are you going to have to hire to start out with before we get started?

Virginia Corrigan:

Well, as Jen mentioned, we're hiring. We hired our clinical coordinator. We have our Wellbeing Coordinator. And then we're hoping to hire at least a couple more faculty members this year, and then probably open up more faculty positions for next year.

Our program is a full, four-year online program, so we definitely need to build up our faculty. And the really cool thing, I think, is that we can pull faculty from all over the country, maybe even around the world. We don't know that yet. But we can really pull in these experts, people who are not only compassionate, but also bring that expertise about the subject that they are teaching to the students.

And that really comes across, especially in an online program when someone's really passionate and also has a lot of experience and expertise in a subject, that shines through even on Zoom.

Dave:

Absolutely.

Virginia Corrigan:

And so those are the people that we're looking for, those subject matter experts, but also these people who are just really excited about it because we want our students to be excited about it. And so we're not limited to having someone who's willing to move here to beautiful Boone, North Carolina, although wouldn't everyone like to live here? It's gorgeous. But we want people to be happy where they are. We want them to grow where they're planted. So we're really happy that we can recruit from all over.

Jen Serling:

We're been interviewing, like Virginia said, some really incredible people, and we're anticipating doing the same in regards to the faculty and really rock stars in the field of Veterinary Technology and veterinary education.

Dave:

So how do y'all get along? Mary Beth, you seem like you're getting along with these people pretty well, right?

Jen Serling:

She fits just right in with us.

Dave:

Were y'all worried? I mean, did you have to interview for Mary Beth? Were you like, "Oh yeah, she's the one, She's awesome."

Mary Beth McKee:

No, they just got stuck with me.

Dave:

Oh, that's what I was thinking.

Jen Serling:

She picked us.

Dave:

Oh, a lot of people say that about their shelter pet or their pet. "No, no. He picked me. He saved me." So yeah, it seems like y'all have a good rapport and y'all do get along really well.

Mary Beth McKee:

Oh, absolutely.

Dave:

Yeah.

Mary Beth McKee:

And I would add Jen and Virginia, they both come with incredible networks within the veterinary community and I think it's just a huge Venn diagram. And I'm not even a big math person, but I like Venn diagrams.

Dave:

Yeah, sure.

Mary Beth McKee:

Because we talk about a topic of, "Hey, anesthesia...," "Hey, animal dentistry..." All these different things. They say, "I know someone who is a really good teacher" and I have been so impressed. And I would say it's not the same in every discipline that they say, "Hey, we're teaching this. Could you share your curriculum? What are you doing in your classes?" And they're like, "Anything I can do to help."

Dave:

Oh, wow.

Mary Beth McKee:

"Here, send you the syllabus. This is the book we're using. Here's what I like about it, and I don't and here's ways you can expand it. And hey, if you want to get together for a quick Zoom..." They are just the most giving people.

Dave:

That's awesome. I'm glad it's part of Appalachian State University. We mentioned a little bit about how the curriculum is growing and how it's forming. So Jen, can you maybe share a little bit more about the curriculum or anybody who wants to jump in, please?

Jen Serling:

So it's a full, four-year bachelor's degree program. There's certain components that have to meet AVMA standards in regards to our accreditation.

But the beautiful thing is in the upper level, there's four tracks that the students can go through and pick. There's a Companion Animal, there's a Practice Management, and then there's one which we're calling One Health, which has a public health component to it, but then also large animal and exotic medicine and nursing. So the students can really find their passion, not pigeonholing themselves into a particular role, but they can study all of these other avenues of veterinary medicine and it's really, really cool.

Dave:

Yeah, it's a broad field. There's a lot of places where people might not consider. Virginia, do you have some examples of positions that you would be uniquely qualified for?

Virginia Corrigan:

Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think the field of veterinary medicine is very exciting right now. There are some unique challenges that are leading to some really amazing opportunities, particularly for those going through this program and interested in the field specifically of Veterinary Technology.

Number one, there's a huge demand in the field because there are more pets. But then there's just more need for skilled and knowledgeable animal health professionals in general. Because this human-animal bond, the love that people have for animals and the role in society is really important. There's certainly a huge need and a role for Veterinary Technicians in clinical practice, both in companion animal as well as other species, like large animal, horses, production animal, et cetera.

But there's also so many really cool opportunities that our students could think about, and we will hopefully be surrounding them with people doing these exciting career opportunities such as working in the industry, working in laboratory animal and research, working in public health, working with education. So going back, full circle and educating the future professionals in our field.

The opportunities are really becoming quite limitless. Even in clinical practice, there's opportunities like home healthcare; skilled technicians going into homes and providing care for people that's really growing. Telehealth and telemedicine is growing as well. So there's really amazing opportunities for credentialed veterinary technicians to really utilize their skills, their knowledge in ways that are unique and will really add value to this profession and add value to animals and to people in this country and around the world, really.

Jen Serling:

Palliative and hospice care is another big, huge up and coming profession that both Techs and Veterinarians are getting into as well, where they're specializing and their job with the home health and doing at home euthanasias and at home palliative care.

Dave:

That being such a traumatic situation, I could see how that would be so welcome to not have to bring your loved animal to a place outside the home when they were already struggling. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, the field's growing. It's a great time to be starting this program. It's exciting. I'm excited to learn about it.

One thing that we did do with Virginia, and we also did with Jen, which we haven't done with Mary Beth, tell us about your dog. You're a dog lover, right, Mary Beth?

Mary Beth McKee:

I really am.

Dave:

Okay. Well, who is the dog in your life or dogs in your life?

Mary Beth McKee:

Right now I just have one dog, Tremont. He is a great dog. Got him from the Humane Society. It was a great way... He was actually born there. So got him at nine months and he has been fabulous.

Dave:

Tell me his name again?

Mary Beth McKee:

Tremont.

Dave:

Tremont. All right, All right.

Jen Serling:

And he's on our website, isn't he?

Mary Beth McKee:

He is, yeah.

Dave:

Oh, really? We can see Tremont. Yeah. The website, you can get there by going to vettech.appstate.edu. And yeah, you can see everybody's animals right here. That's great. Got to meet Daffy and Marshall Meowthers, Jen's pets. And then Virginia, it's been a little longer for you, but I remember there was Mango? Was that one of them?

Virginia Corrigan:

You have such a good memory, Dave. I had a Mango.

Dave:

Oh, okay.

Virginia Corrigan:

I have a Kiwi.

Dave:

Kiwi!

Virginia Corrigan:

And I have two dogs, Yogi and Tucker. And I'll just put a plug back in for the home healthcare and hospice care. I' recently lost my cat, Apricot and I had a veterinarian come to my house.

Dave:

Oh, wow.

Virginia Corrigan:

And she was extremely compassionate and she was phenomenal. And what an opportunity for a veterinary technician to be by her side, to really provide that care. I mean, for me, it was absolutely the right thing to do and for my pet, for her to go in that way. So really, I'll put a plug back in for what Jen mentioned, just a huge opportunity out there.

Dave:

Absolutely. There's a lot you can learn about the program by going online to the website. One more time that's vettech.app state.edu.

Jen Serling, Mary Beth McKee, and Virginia Corrigan, thank y'all all for joining me. I really appreciate y'all being in the studio and have fun in Boone.

Jen Serling:

Thanks, Dave.

Virginia Corrigan:

Thank you, Dave.

Dave:

If you love animals, a degree in veterinary technology may be just what you need in your life, put that love for animals to work for you. No matter your busy schedule, you'll learn to capably assist veterinarians and prepare for certification exams to take advantage of a flourishing job market and ensure that pets get the care they need. You can find out more by going online to the vet tech website, that's vettech.appstate.edu.  Vet Tech Talk is at production of university communications here at Appalachian State. Check out more of our podcasts by going online to podcasts.appstate.edu. I'm Dave Blanks. Thanks so much for listening to Vet Tech Talk and have a great day.

On this episode of Vet Tech Talk, we welcome Jen Serling to the studio.

Jen is the assistant program director of the Appalachian State University veterinary technology program.

Dave Blanks:

Welcome, Jen. I'm going to give a little history on you, but I'm glad you're here.

Jen Serling:

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Dave Blanks:

I'm glad you found the place. Thanks for visiting. Jen Serling, you are a credentialed veterinary technician and you have been since 1992. Jen's specialty is large animal nursing. However, she's had quite a bit of experience encompassing all facets of veterinary medicine, and she's been a veterinary technician educator since 2007. Jen, you were also the program director for a veterinary technician school in Tucson, Arizona. And you did that for 11 years, correct?

Jen Serling:

Correct.

Dave Blanks:

All right. I told you I was going to just do your thing-

Jen Serling:

You are.

Dave Blanks:

... And then talk to, but I keep bringing you back into the conversation.

Jen Serling:

It's good.

Dave Blanks:

You're rolling with it good. Now, you've joined Appalachian State University and our program, which we will discuss today. Jen has written two veterinary technician textbooks for bluedoor Publishing on pharmacology and large animal medicine and nursing, as well as contributed to several other textbooks. In addition to teaching and writing, she's a firm believer in giving back to the community and serves on the board of directors for three animal welfare and rescue groups, as well as donating her time to several veterinary charity events throughout the year. And she is the current president for the Association of Veterinary Technician Educators, or the AVTE, and also a founding member of the Academy of Veterinary Technician Specialists in Education, AVTSE, and holds the advanced certification of veterinary technician and education specialist, VTSE. She currently resides in Tucson, right? Correct? [inaudible 00:01:44].

Jen Serling:

Yes. You got it.

Dave Blanks:

All right. In Arizona, she has a dog, she has a cat who we will learn about, and two grown human boys as well. Welcome, Jen Serling.

Jen Serling:

Thank you so much.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. So, let's start it out by introducing the animals that are in your life.

Jen Serling:

Yes. So, my two favorite animals... Don't tell my children this, although they know it. So, I have this-

Dave Blanks:

Wait, are you saying your children are animals too?

Jen Serling:

Yeah. Well, they're all boys, boys. Yes, they are.

Dave Blanks:

Then they're wild animals.

Jen Serling:

But they accept that. But yeah, so I have a dog and a cat now. I used to have a horse, but I've definitely downsized since then. Yeah. So, my cat, his name is Marshall Meowthers and he's an alley cat that I ended up adopting. Initially, his name was called, not my cat, because he came into the school, he kept showing up in the back door and he would just walk in and make himself at home. And I would take him home on the weekends because I didn't want to leave him at the school, and I'm like, "He's not my cat. He's not my cat." And then the weekend kept expanding longer and longer, and so now, I think four years later, he's not my cat.

Dave Blanks:

Aw. That's awesome.

Jen Serling:

But he's amazing. He's just this big gray alley cat. And then my absolute favorite child is my golden retriever, named Daffy. Yeah. So, she'll be eight this summer and the kids realize she is my absolute favorite child ever.

Dave Blanks:

You can't hide it, right?

Jen Serling:

Yeah. She's dumb as a brick, but she's the best dog ever.

Dave Blanks:

Aren't Golden's supposed to be relatively intelligent?

Jen Serling:

Oh yeah, they are. Not this one. There's air in her skull.

Dave Blanks:

But she's got a good heart, right?

Jen Serling:

Oh, she's the best. She's the sweetest dog ever. I love her.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, Daffy.

Jen Serling:

Yeah. Oh, Daffy.

Dave Blanks:

Well, you're new to the program here at Appalachian State. The program's new. How long have you been on board here at App?

Jen Serling:

So, I started here at App the end of January, so not too very long. I've now kind of feel like I got my feet wet and I'm ready to go. I'm in the groove. Super excited we're starting our first cohort, classes are starting in fall of '22, so the train has left the station. We are barreling. We're ready to go.

Dave Blanks:

Well, so you've had plenty of experience in the world of veterinary medicine, technicians, technology, when did you know that this was going to be your calling?

Jen Serling:

So, it's funny, I started off thinking that I wanted to go to vet school. When you talk to the guidance counselor in high school, they're like, "Oh, you like animals. You like medicine. You like science. Well, you should be a veterinarian." During that time, when I was doing my undergrad, you had to do a certain amount of hours working in a veterinary clinic before you could apply to veterinary school. And I worked as a veterinary assistant at that point, and I'm like, "Wow, you know what? I don't need to go to vet school. This is really what I want to do. This is veterinary nursing and this is cool."

And no one had ever talked to me at that point. That was the late 80s, which is dating me now. But I thought, "Wow, this is a great profession to get into that really nobody talks about." They're like, "Okay, well, if you want to go into veterinary medicine, your only option is to be a veterinarian," and that's not true. There's many other professions in the veterinary healthcare team that kind of play into that. So, I ended up deciding to become a credentialed veterinary technician. And I worked my butt off in the clinics and took my board exams in 1992 and passed my state and my national examinations.

Dave Blanks:

Nice. So, is that a bar type thing? I mean, how much are you studying for this...? Look, full disclosure, the world of veterinary technology and medicine is a new one to me, so I'm learning maybe right along with our listeners. Our listeners are probably better informed than I am. So, can you tell me about that process just as an aside here for a second?

Jen Serling:

Yeah. So, it's kind of interesting. So, back then, and like I said, I was from Arizona, Arizona and certain states at that time, as well, had a grandfather clause. And that instead of going to a vet tech program, like what App State is doing, you could work, it was almost 5,000 hours in a veterinary clinic and study for your exams. And then you could go ahead and sit for the exams as long as you had a certain number of hours. So, that was my initial track. I basically did on the job training and then took my board exams and became credentialed that way. Later on in 2016, I actually went back to tech school. After I had my bachelor's and all that, I actually then went back to tech school because I needed that veterinary technology degree to advance in my career in veterinary education.

Dave Blanks:

Even though you've been doing it for-

Jen Serling:

Even though I've been doing it from umpteen years.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, that's hilarious.

Jen Serling:

What's even funnier, this is so bad, I use one of my books in my reports I had to do for the online school, so I cited my myself.

Dave Blanks:

Wow. That's hilarious.

Jen Serling:

Yeah, it was kind of funny. But what's beautiful about it... There's a very big push now in the veterinary technology profession to really credentialize our standards and push pro education, which I'm 110% for. And what the beauty of kind of my backstory is, is I've done it both ways. I did it without the education and I've done it with the education. And I look back at what I did and learning on the job, I would never want to do that again. And there's something to be said for knowing the "why" behind it and not just... I can teach a monkey to run anesthesia, but to understand why the animal is responding to drugs and gases in a certain way, you can't learn that on the job. You have to get the book smarts behind it.

Dave Blanks:

Understood. Well, that's an interesting perspective that not everybody has. We heard about some of your background as it pertains to veterinary medicine, so how has that journey led you to Appalachian State?

Jen Serling:

So, it was interesting. Like I said, I've been working in the field for a long time and I had gotten my bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and I was recently getting divorced and I'm like, "I love veterinary medicine, but I just don't know feasibility-wise," I had two young kids and I'm like, "You know what, on a whim, let's apply for a job at a veterinary assistant program as a teacher." The hours were good and the pay was good and I'm like, "This makes much more sense as a single mom, so let's do that." So, I went in, and again, I tell this story to my students, because this is how you don't go to apply for jobs. It was summer in Arizona and I was wearing shorts because I was thinking I'm just going to pick up an application, fill it out and be done with it, but actually they chased me down in the parking lot and said, "Can you come in for an interview now?" And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I'm not dressed for this."

They're like, "It's okay. It's fine." So, they interviewed me that day and hired me the next day to teach their vet assistant program.

Dave Blanks:

Holy Moly.

Jen Serling:

Yeah. And that was back in 2007 and I did that for three years. And then at the school they started a vet tech program and then they promoted me to the director. So, I started that vet tech program, but I fell in love with it. I never imagined if you had told me 20 years ago that this is what I would be doing, I would've laughed. And I'm like, "No, I don't know how to teach. I don't know what I'm doing." And absolutely this is my calling. This is what I'm meant to do. I love working with the students. I love the animals as well, but there's something about being able to give the students this leg up and show them what this incredible profession entails and just the love of science and medicine and nursing. It's amazing.

Dave Blanks:

Did you have a teacher that inspired you while you were going through your educational process after you'd already done all the OTJ stuff? Right? All the on the job. Not really?

Jen Serling:

Not really, no.

Dave Blanks:

This is such an unusual story. You just on a whim, on a Lark.

Jen Serling:

Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

How good was it for your ego when you were walking out and then they hunted you down and were like, "Come back, please"?

Jen Serling:

It felt good because I had been just a stay at home mom for a while and then I'm like, "Oh wait."

Dave Blanks:

Oh, well, hello.

Jen Serling:

So, it was kind of good for the ego.

Dave Blanks:

I'm sure.

Jen Serling:

I had worked with externs before from this particular program, so it wasn't like I was completely going through the yellow pages and going through the Yellow Pages and going "eeny, meeny, miny, moe."So, I'd worked with them before, and so I knew the school existed. And I'm like, "Well, I've worked with them at the clinic, so why not?" Yeah. So, it was fate. Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

So, tell us about the program here at Appalachian State. I guess, how did you come here to App? Did we say that already? We didn't say that yet.

Jen Serling:

No. So, I had left the job as program director. I was like, "You know what? I'd hit 50 and it was time to start kind of looking for a new career." And the pros of the pandemic led a lot of us to kind of discover virtual education and distance education and working from home in our pajama pants. All the pluses from that.

Dave Blanks:

Hey, I'm sorry you had to wear real clothes today. I apologize.

Jen Serling:

And I'm wearing makeup today too. I mean, I went all out today.

Dave Blanks:

You look great.

Jen Serling:

Thank you. Yeah. But it was really neat and I'm like, "You know what? I think it's time for something. I've kind of reached the pinnacle of where I was at, at that position." And so, I had been talking to Dr. Corrigan, Virginia previously, talking to her about starting a program and that kind of stuff. And she had mentioned that they were going to be hiring for the assistant director. And it was kind of funny, the day that I had left the old position was the day that the job posting for App State posted.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, it's fate.

Jen Serling:

Yeah, it was. And I'm like, "I'm on it." I applied for the job and went through a very rigorous interview process and I knew I wanted it. I wanted it so bad. And everything that I was reading and from talking to Virginia, I just fell in love with it. I fell in love with the university. I fell in love with the four year bachelor's degree program. And again, it was just something that I knew I had to do. Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

So, you mentioned the four year bachelor's, so that is different than the previous educational requirement?

Jen Serling:

It is. So, normally to sit for board exams for both the national and some states have their own state exams as well, everybody has to take the Veterinary Technician National Examination, or the VTNE. In order to take those examinations, you have to be a graduate from an AVMA accredited program. Those programs are only two year programs. There are some four year bachelor's degree programs out there, but they're bachelor completion programs and they're not regulated by the AVMA. AVMA just wants us to make sure that we have these core two year standards. And if you want to get a bachelor's on top of it, that's great, but they're not honing in on that. They focus on the two year program.

So, what's unique about the one here is that we're actually going to be the first full four year bachelor's program, meaning that not only are we going to have the core standards that the AVMA requires, but then we are also going to build upon that. So, it's amazing. And that's what's really fun about it. Not only are you learning the AVMA standards, which has dog and cat and exotics and large animal and all that cool stuff, but we're also then once you get beyond that, you can learn practice management, you can learn about public health, you can learn about dentistry as a specialty. So, we're teaching you the core standard material and then beyond that. So, it's really going to allow for our graduates to be really strong in this profession, and really allow them to advocate for themselves and know their own self worth and be out there and just kick butt.

Dave Blanks:

Definitely. Yeah. A more well-rounded individual. So, you told us about the program. Is there more you like to expand on on the program? I know it's fully online. It's a hundred percent online.

Jen Serling:

So, we're going to be hiring some amazing faculty. We're going to be hiring what's called VTSs, or veterinary technician specialists. We're going to be teaching our upper level courses. So, like I mentioned, dentistry, radiology, anesthesiology, they're going to be delivered by people that that's their profession, that's what they do and they are experts at that. But what's also interesting about it is, yes, while the program itself is a hundred percent online, because we are going to be AVMA accredited because we want the grads to go out there and take their board exams, there is also courses that they do have to take in clinics. So, there are hands-on components to the program that they will be doing, whether they live in Boone or whether they live in Tucson, Arizona, or Potomac, Maryland, wherever, they're going to be able to do those hands-on skills wherever they're living.

And if they're already working in a clinic and that clinic meets the qualifications, they can then do some of those skills in the clinics as well. We're also looking to potentially offer what we're going to call fast track labs, where we can also bring students in from all over the country or regionally, and be able to do hands-on skills on horses and cattle and goats and some of the exotics that are a little bit harder for people to procure, to do their lab skills. We're going to try to find sources regionally, so that we can also help achieve those skills as well. Because there's over 200 skills, particularly hands-on skills that the students have to accomplish as well.

Dave Blanks:

Right. Okay. So yeah, it's a hundred percent online, but there's an in person, hands-on component.

Jen Serling:

There is, yes.

Dave Blanks:

It's just that the student can do that where they are.

Jen Serling:

Exactly. Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Right. So, we are going to pull students.. It won't just be the high country of Western North Carolina, we can pull students from wherever they are.

Jen Serling:

World domination. Let's get them from everywhere.

Dave Blanks:

A hundred percent. All right. I love the attitude. I will take a side note here and say, goodness gracious at the acronyms in this. I mean there are enough acronyms in higher education as it is. And now we have all these veterinary acronyms, which are AVMA, VTNE, VTS. There's quite the learning curve for me, but I'm going to figure it out.

Jen Serling:

We'll get you there.

Dave Blanks:

Thank you.

Jen Serling:

Yeah. We're going to work with you.

Dave Blanks:

You are so patient. I mean, I guess you have to be.

Jen Serling:

It's fun. This is what we love to talk about. And all of us here in the department, we're so excited and we love kind of spreading the gospel about this. And all of us will pretty much talk to anybody and try to educate on this profession because it's pretty incredible. And I don't think enough people realize that this is an option.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah, even now. They didn't realize that when you were looking for your calling. Even now, they still might not. So, can you tell me kind of the overarching goal for the program? Can you speak to that?

Jen Serling:

So, one of the things is, and the pandemic has definitely brought it to a national kind of forefront, is that we are in a workforce crisis with both veterinarians and veterinary technicians. So, we are experiencing a shortage. If you look on indeed or any of the job searching sites, I mean you can pull up hundreds of listings for veterinary technicians. They're desperately needed right now. And it's the same thing with veterinarians as well. But what we're focusing on in regards to here is the average kind of lifespan of a veterinary technician is anywhere between about five to seven years, so they don't tend to stick in the field very long. And there's kind of a plethora of reasons for that, but what we want to do is, is we want to focus on how are we going to educate these students? How are we going to give them the tools to go out there to make a good living, to be able to make this a profession and make this their lifelong career and become lifelong learners?

So, that's kind of what we're focusing on in regards to the students and giving them all the tools. And by providing them that advance, that bachelor's degree versus the associate's degree, they're going to be that much more prepared because they're not limiting themselves. And this is what I always try to tell my students is you don't have to be limited to just a small animal general practice. And I think a lot of people kind of get pigeonholed into that thinking, but there's so much more out there. I mean, look at me, I didn't realize that I would become a teacher and now I ran a program, and now I'm working at this major university. I've written textbooks. I mean, there's so much more out there that they can do. They can go into pharmaceuticals.

The USDA is hiring right now for veterinary technicians. You can work in research. I have a former grad that works at Colorado State, working with monkeys and helping with surgeries on primate. I mean, so there's so much more out there if you look at kind of the scope of veterinary technology in general, and that's what this bachelor's degree is going to prepare them for, to go out there and really just become leaders in the community and leaders in the profession.

Dave Blanks:

Taking the average of didn't you say five years?

Jen Serling:

Five to seven years, mm-hmm.

Dave Blanks:

Five to seven to be in their lifetime profession. That's a tall order. And you said there are a variety of reasons why they leave. And I know that giving them the tools that they need to deal with some of the more powerful or emotional moments is also part of the program as well.

Jen Serling:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Self care. Can you talk to me lastly, so we're going to wrap up with this. We're kind of getting down to the core of why you care about this, the human-animal bond. So, do you have a story where you had a close connection with an animal, you had a bond with an animal? And what did that mean to you?

Jen Serling:

So, very early on in my career, I worked at a general practice in a certain area of Tucson.

Dave Blanks:

You were born in Tucson?

Jen Serling:

No, I'm actually a DC girl.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, are you really?

Jen Serling:

Yeah, I'm an East Coast girl. That's a whole nother story why ended up on the...

Dave Blanks:

That'll be the next.

Jen Serling:

My dad had aspirations of being John Wayne and moved us out to the desert.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, man.

Jen Serling:

Yeah. So, I was working in Tucson. Tucson is relatively close to the Mexico border, so we did a lot of work with Border Patrol, and we were working with the Border Patrol dogs. We had a Border Patrol dog come in and it had Valley fever, which is a really nasty fungal infection that's very common in the Southwest. So, we were doing x-rays and the dog ended up being hospitalized. But I very vividly remember, it was really interesting, we were taking x-rays, and again, this is an old x-ray machine, but it would click when you would go to take the x-ray. Well, the dog, when he heard the click thought it was a gun cocking, and so flipped out. So, we had to bring in the handler and we had to put him in the lead shield and everything.

And so, the handler had to come in and had to help us get the x-rays, so that the dog was calm, and the dog understood German commands because it's a Border Patrol dog. But anyways, watching the interaction between the handler and the dog was just phenomenal, the bond that the two of them had. And then gradually the dog was hospitalized. We had that dog three weeks. He unfortunately did end up passing, but I got to spend a lot of time with that dog, so we did develop a bond and he finally realized, "Okay, she's not-

Dave Blanks:

She's trying to help me.

Jen Serling:

... She's trying to help me. And it was one of the first patients that I've lost that really kind of affected me, that it really hurt. I mean, we always hurt no matter what patient died, but there's certain ones that mean a lot to you. And that was one of the ones where I couldn't save it, and I really bonded with it. And seeing the handler with the dog and how devastated he was. It's always a moment in medicine that's always stuck with me.

Dave Blanks:

Somber. Somber story.

Jen Serling:

Yes. Sorry.

Dave Blanks:

No, that's all right.

Jen Serling:

Let's lift it back up.

Dave Blanks:

How can we find out more information about this program? I know we have a pretty great website about it.

Jen Serling:

We do.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah. Is it vettech.appstate.edu?

Jen Serling:

It is. And if you go on there, there's a bunch of links that you can click. If you want to look at either myself or Virginia or Mary Beth's bios, and get ahold of us, you can find out how to reach us on those as well. But also we have our course outlines, so the students can see what classes we're going to be offering. So, I encourage anyone to go check it out. All of us are open if anyone has any questions and would like to set up a Zoom. Even though I'm in Arizona, I'm always happy to talk to somebody.

Dave Blanks:

Nice. I can tell you're easy to talk to. Jen, it's been very informative having you in. I've thoroughly enjoyed talking to you. Thank you so much for being here today. I think we covered a lot. There's more to find out, and hopefully we'll get to talk again.

Jen Serling:

I'd love that.

Dave Blanks:

Maybe I'll just... I don't know, I could Zoom with you because we could totally do that even though you're in Tucson.

Jen Serling:

Yeah.

Dave Blanks:

How's Boone?

Jen Serling:

This is my new home away from home. Right? So, I'm hoping to be out here, we're thinking probably four to five times a year, and I absolutely love it.

Dave Blanks:

Very cool. Nice. Well, we're glad to have you. And if you want to find out more information about Jen or reach out to her, again, you can go to the vettech.appstate.edu website or hunt her down on LinkedIn-

Jen Serling:

Heck yeah.

Dave Blanks:

... She's on there as well. Jen, thanks so much.

Jen Serling:

Thank you.

Dave Blanks:

If you love animals, a degree in veterinary technology may be just what you need in your life, put that love for animals to work for you. No matter your busy schedule, you'll learn to capably assist veterinarians and prepare for certification exams to take advantage of a flourishing job market and ensure that pets get the care they need. You can find out more by going online to the vet tech website, that's vettech.appstate.edu.  Vet Tech Talk is at production of university communications here at Appalachian State. Check out more of our podcasts by going online to podcasts.appstate.edu. I'm Dave Blanks. Thanks so much for listening to Vet Tech Talk and have a great day.

Director of Appalachian State University's online Veterinary Technology degree program, Dr. Virginia Corrigan joins University Communication's Dave Blanks on the first ever episode of Vet Tech Talk! Dave and Virginia discuss the new program at App State. Virginia shares the journey that has lead her to this position as well as some of her most meaningful moments during her time as a veterinary professional. 

Transcript: 

Dave Blanks:

This is Vet Tech Talk, a podcast about Appalachian State University's online four year bachelor of science in veterinary technology degree program. In this first episode, we'll get to know the professionals who run the program here at App State, we'll learn about their lives and the paths that have led them to our university, we'll learn all about the animals in their lives as well. I'm your host, Dave Blanks. Am I an expert in veterinary technology? No, I certainly am not, but not to worry. Our first guest most assuredly, is. Dr. Virginia Corrigan, who's a director of veterinary technology degree program here at Appalachian State. On this first episode, Dr. Corrigan shares her journey from a little girl who loved cats and horses to a doctor of veterinary medicine running this program. You'll learn more about the program, you'll find out what veterinary nursing is and where the program can take you. Also, the important role that wellbeing plays in the field. Now, here's my conversation with Dr. Corrigan. Hello, Virginia. How are you?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Hello, I am very well today. Thank you.

Dave Blanks:

Excellent. So you found the place.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I found it.

Dave Blanks:

I'm glad. Yeah. Thank you for joining us today to talk about the new veterinary technology program at Appalachian State. We're going to discuss the program, we are going to get to know a little bit about who you are. And this is the first of our podcast about the veterinary technology program. We're going to meet a lot of people, but you're starting us out. Why are you starting us out? Because...

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I'm the program director for veterinary technology. I imagine that is why you asked me to come.

Dave Blanks:

You're correct. Yeah. So we thought we'd start it out with you. Can you tell us who are you as it pertains to veterinary medicine? And I would like to know also about the animals that are in your life.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Absolutely. Happy to share. I think who I am and veterinary medicine are very intertwined I would say, because I am a classic veterinarian. I wanted to be a vet from the time I was six years old. I grew up with animals, specifically cats, and then I also had a fascination with horses. For better or worse, my mom led me down the path and she let me ride my first horse when I was six and I was absolutely hooked. And I rode horses growing up and I competed and I lived at the barn. I was one of those girls. And so it was always my manifest destiny to become a veterinarian because I just loved animals.

Dave Blanks:

Nice.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Still do.

Dave Blanks:

So what animals are in your life right now? What are the animals that are a part of your life? Do you have a horse now?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

The funny thing about that, is I went to vet school and I told myself I was going to be an equine veterinarian, because I loved horses so much and I do not have a horse.

Dave Blanks:

Oh, wow.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I never have.

Dave Blanks:

What?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Because it turns out that horses are really expensive creatures. They are beautiful and I love them dearly. The animals that currently share my life with me, two dogs and two cats. I have a very, very sweet, best dog in the whole wide world named Yogi. He's an almost 14 year old Golden Retriever. He has spent his life as a therapy dog. So he used to come to work with me in my previous job and he worked with students on the campus at Virginia Tech. And so he's just the sweetest dog. Now, he's happily retired and our part-time nanny should we say, to our three little kids.

            Then, I have a seven year old Golden Retriever named Tucker who actually was training to be a service dog and I was his puppy trainer. And no fault of my own, I will say, he did not make it all the way through the training. He's very, very sweet, but was really meant to be a pet and just loves people so much, was not really meant for that life of service. So he shares our home with us and he and Yogi are the best of friends. And then I have two cats, I have Apricot and Kiwi. I have a theme for fruit names for my cats, and they're both just very, very sweet. And they sit with me in my many, many Zoom meetings now.

Dave Blanks:

Nice. So I think you kind of mentioned it, but how long have you been doing this? The veterinary thing has been with you since you were six, you said?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I graduated from veterinary school in 2010. I went to the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. And so I've been officially a veterinarian for 12 years.

Dave Blanks:

And how has that journey led you here, to Appalachian State?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

What a journey. I never would've imagined myself here. And actually, I will be honest with you. As I walked in this building, feeling a little bit nervous about this podcast, I imagined everyone I've known in my career so far kind of right behind me and giving me like a high five, because I've had the most phenomenal career in veterinary medicine. I'm just so proud to be here and I'm really proud to represent my profession, because I love it and I'm very passionate about it. And the people within this profession are just the most amazing people I've ever met. So I'm really proud to be here on their behalf, is how I see it. What led me here. So as I mentioned, I went to veterinary school at University of Tennessee, go Vols. I am a volunteer fan after going there, how can you not?

Dave Blanks:

I will accept that. We'll allow it. All right.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

That orange color, it just like.... I don't know, it's hypnotizing maybe.

Dave Blanks:

Maybe that's what it is. Yeah.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

But I had a fantastic experience. Absolutely loved it. And then I went off to Denver, Colorado and I spent a year in an internship program at Alameda East Veterinary Hospital, which a lot of people remember the Animal Planet show that they used to film there. And no, I was not on the show, thankfully. They were not filming it while I was there, which is very, very good because as a brand new veterinarian, it's absolutely terrifying.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah, that would be some serious intimidation.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

So that would be even worse, if someone was following you around asking you, "So what are you going to do now?" But anyway, it was an awesome internship. And then I moved on from there and actually was in Charlotte, North Carolina, so not far from here. For about two years, I worked in general practice in emergency medicine at Animal Medical Hospital in Charlotte. And that was such a formative experience for me, by myself in the middle of the night with my veterinary technicians and my veterinary assistants and we were just taking whatever walked in the door.

Dave Blanks:

So you were alone with your vet techs from the jump off, there wasn't like a shadowing experience with that?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Since I had done an internship, they assumed I was pretty much ready to be by myself. And honestly, it's the best way to learn, just jumping in whether you like it or not.

Dave Blanks:

Maybe not great for your nerves initially, but yeah, you're probably right.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

After I did two years of private practice, then I actually went to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia tech. I did a residency there, completed my master's in public health, and became board certified in the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. And then I loved the academic environment and teaching so much, I stayed on as faculty. So right before coming here to App State, I was a faculty member at the veterinary school. And then the opportunity came about, I basically got my shoulder tapped and said, "Hey, would you be interested in helping to start a new veterinary technology program at App State?" And I said, "Well, that's crazy, but it sounds wonderful." I thought about it and decided this was the opportunity of a lifetime, to start something new and to really have a positive impact on the profession. So I went for it and here I am. I have been in this position for about six months now.

Dave Blanks:

Well, I'm glad you're here. It sounds like the program is very promising. Can you tell me a little bit about it?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I would absolutely love to tell you more about the program. So what we are aiming to achieve, is a four year bachelor of science program in veterinary technology. And this program is going to have online courses. So all of the courses will be online, and then our students will be achieving their clinical skills training onsite in veterinary healthcare settings. So that might be veterinary clinics, it might be lab animal settings, we're going to be broad in that definition. But essentially, they're going to be doing their hands-on skills training in veterinary practices and then doing their coursework online.

Dave Blanks:

Okay. Gotcha. So the whole first part of it, how long is the online version of it? Does it mix back and forth, online learning, in-person learning?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

So the interesting thing, is it's not a one size fits all program, because of the varied nature of where our students are coming from in their lives and what other things they have going on. So we are trying to make this program be very flexible and to fit the needs of our students, because a lot of our students potentially could be working full-time or part-time in a veterinary clinic at the same time that they're doing courses for this program, which is the wonderful thing about it being online, is that they can access it that way. We might have students who choose to do the program full-time and then just do their externships over the summer, which is the way we designed it so that they can focus on their clinical experiences over the summer and then focus on their coursework during that semester.

            We're going to open it up to any and all of those possibilities for the students. So in an ideal world, one compliments the other, however they're doing it. If they're working at the same time or if they're doing courses and then doing their externships, some people work better one way or the other, honestly. And some people just feel like they need that hands-on right from the beginning, and that's fine. But we do want one to compliment the other. And I think what's really unique about what we're trying to achieve, is that we're making it very practical, as hands-on as you can get in an online environment. We're going to try to really connect what they're learning in the course with what really happens hands-on, make it very, very useful and practical from the start.

Dave Blanks:

Right. So a couple of things that you said. So you said externship, can you explain that to me?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I would love to.

Dave Blanks:

Okay, thank you.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

So an externship in veterinary medicine at least, is defined as a work-based experience that you do while you're enrolled in your program. And then an internship would be an experience that you undertake after you graduate.

Dave Blanks:

Gotcha. Okay. All right. Another thing you said in answer to that question about the program, is it's meeting students where they are. The program's online, so you said where they are in their lives. But what about geographically where they are? Who are these students going to be? Could they be across the country?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

They could be coming from anywhere. Again, the beauty of online education. We really welcome students coming from anywhere. I know some of the other distance based veterinary technology programs shared with me that they have students in other countries.

Dave Blanks:

Wow.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I was speaking with a program director from another program in Florida and she was mentioning she has a student from Iceland. So dream big.

Dave Blanks:

Yeah.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

You never know. I think in the beginning, we're really going to draw mostly from North Carolina because they're very familiar with App State, in state tuition is definitely appealing. We're trying to build this program to really fit the needs of where the profession is and where it's going. And so that would be inclusive of students coming from all over the country and from all walks of life.

Dave Blanks:

So the vision of the program is shaping the future of veterinary nursing. Is that correct? Did I get that right?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Yes.

Dave Blanks:

Shaping the future of veterinary nursing. So what does veterinary nursing look like now and what is it that we are going to be doing differently with veterinary nursing, with this program? Can you give me an idea of that, of what are we trying to accomplish with it?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I would be happy to. And first, I'll start with the term veterinary nursing, because I think that in and of itself deserves a little bit of explanation and rounding out because where the profession is at this point is a turning point. If you want to have an analogy of who is a veterinary technician, well, they really are the equivalent of a human nurse. They play the same types of roles in healthcare settings, as you can imagine an human nurse playing. So they're not just the ones drawing blood, taking x-rays. As a veterinarian, I am handing my patient to a veterinary technician or a veterinary nurse and trusting them to do a real bulk of the patient care. Their hands-on monitoring patients who are under anesthesia, recovering them, monitoring them in the ICU, administering treatments and medications, assessing patients, suggesting treatments and ongoing therapies.

            So they are so much more than what they might seem from first glance. And so the field is really undergoing quite an evolution right now. And according to the AVMA, which is the American Veterinary Medical Association, the terminology that's widely accepted for this professional is either veterinary technician or a veterinary technologist. And by the book, a veterinary technician is an individual that has graduated from an associate's degree program for veterinary technology. A veterinary technologist is an individual who has graduated from a four year bachelor's program. However, there is a push and there's actually an entity called the veterinary nursing initiative because of the fact that veterinary technician or technologist, it's not really understood when you say that, what exactly this person does.

Dave Blanks:

Right. I wouldn't have been able to guess.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

But when you say veterinary nursing-

Dave Blanks:

Exactly.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

It makes sense.

Dave Blanks:

I know exactly what you mean. Yeah.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

And there's a lot more that goes into that unpack and probably having Jen Serling, who's our assistant director, and she's a credentialed veterinary technician. I think she'd be the best one to walk you through all of that. But suffice it to say that the field is really at this turning point. And I would say again, going back to the analogy of human nursing, were kind of where they were maybe 30 to 40 years ago, where there's differentiation of roles happening, advancement in educational opportunities and really a growth in, again, these career opportunities. Because right now, it's a bit stagnant. There aren't necessarily clear pathways for veterinary technicians, veterinary nurses. And by the way, I will use those terms synonymously because in the field right now, you can use either one. And there are feelings one way or the other, but again, it's becoming more widely accepted that there really needs to be additional programs that provide a ladder and provide growth, so that additional types of career opportunities and advancement in their particular area of emphasis can be achieved.

Dave Blanks:

Gotcha. Well, let me ask you this. So if your plan ultimately, was to be a vet, would this program be a good first step for you if that was where you were heading? What's that first step now? Why is this different or maybe better?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I'm really glad you brought that up. That's a common question because there are a lot of people who contact me who are interested in veterinary medicine as a career, and maybe they are interested in becoming a veterinarian or maybe they don't know that there are other options for them. So just to answer the first part of your question, the four year program in veterinary technology is not necessarily for those who know for sure they want to go to veterinary school. We are not providing the prerequisites that they will need to apply for veterinary school. That's not the emphasis of this program.

            We're really designing this program specifically for people who would like to become veterinary technicians and veterinary nurses. That's what this program is being designed for. That being said, there might be students who go through the four year program and decide that they would like to go to veterinary school, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. They just need to know that it would be very important to work with their advisor to make sure that they have taken the courses that they need, because veterinary school admission is extremely competitive and it's very specific in the courses that they would need to take.

Dave Blanks:

Virginia, are there other programs like this currently in the US?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

There are other bachelor's programs in veterinary technology. We are going to be the very first fully online four year bachelors program in veterinary technology. There do exist, bachelor's completion programs that are online in which students are enrolled after they have completed an associates degree, their two or three year associates degree in veterinary technology and they wish to complete a full four year bachelors in veterinary technology. But we are the very first that is a full four year and online. There are other onsite brick and mortar four year bachelor's programs. So we're a little bit different in that way.

Dave Blanks:

Gotcha. So one aspect of veterinary technicians lives, is there's a lot of success and there's a lot of grief as well that these professionals are going to have to deal with in their job. Is part of our curriculum dealing with losing a patient, dealing with helping a family who has experienced a loss? Because that's a big part of veterinary medicine.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

I'm really glad that you brought this subject up. So wellbeing in the veterinary profession is one of the most important topics to me personally, as well as what's important to this program because veterinary medicine is a caregiving profession. We give care to patients, we give care to people, and it's absolutely incredible to me, what I have learned through the years how much of a people profession this is. And that is something that it is challenging at times and it presents a lot of opportunity for us in education to be able to help our students be prepared. Because the way I think of it is, between stimulus and response, there's a space and in that space lies our power to choose. And there are going to be challenging times in this profession. When I graduated, I went out and did an internship and I was doing a lot of emergency.

            And there's some really challenging situations. A lot of emotions, you mentioned grief, loss, just difficult situations where you wish you could help a pet. And for one reason or another, you're just not able to do what you wish you could do for that animal. I will say, not all negative, of course, there's just these absolutely most beautiful moments where the bond between a person and their animal is just illuminated and you get to be a part of that. And even if that is at that pet's end of life, you get to play a part in caring for that animal in their final moments and that can be an absolutely beautiful thing. However, it also is challenging because we came into this profession because we want to save all the animals. And when I was six, that's exactly what I thought I was going to be doing.

            So it is absolutely essential that we empower our students and help them to learn the skills to maintain their own personal wellbeing first and foremost, because we need them to be at their best in order to provide the best care to their patients, to their clients, to the communities. And in those challenging moments, again, that's space that we have to choose. That's the power. And so we're going to fill that space with communication skills, leadership, wellbeing, personal development. That is just hugely important to us and why I really believe that the four year program is a wonderful thing, because there's so much to learn that's just strictly veterinary medicine. You have to learn anesthesia, you've got to learn how to place an IV catheter, you have to learn pharmacology. It's just part of the job. But these foundational skills are so important and that's really going to make the difference to someone when they get out there, and they're working and they face a challenging situation. So that's really my vision and my goal, is to help with that component of the job, because it exists.

Dave Blanks:

I had a feeling that was a part of the program as well. So a word you used... I keep doing that like, "Oh, you said this word, you said that word," but you did use the word bond. And that's something that I saw when I was looking through information about you, about who you are. I looked you up on LinkedIn, and you talked about the human animal bond. Can you tell me about that? Like, what do you mean when you talk about the human animal bond?

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Oh, wow. What a question. That could be an all day answer. So the human animal bond. So it's a broad term, but it's the mutually beneficial relationship between humans and animals. So it's a two-way street. Our lives are better because animals are around and animals' lives are better because we're around, and it's a two-way coin. Of course, not all of the relationships between human and animals lead to a positive outcome, unfortunately. But what we think of when we think of the human animal bond from a veterinary medicine perspective, is how a veterinary professional can help to promote and protect that bond. Because when we think of the mutually beneficial relationship between people and animals... Well, what really came to me as I developed my career in veterinary medicine, is when I take care of someone's pet, I'm actually taking care of that person too, because pets are part of our family. In a lot of situations and a lot of communities and cultures, your pet is part of your family.

            And so having that pet around can lower your stress, can decrease your anxiety, can provide you with this companionship that, especially during COVID, you cannot even imagine just these relationships that were strengthened and formed. And sometimes, animals just get people through the day. It's just how it is. And so when I'm helping someone's animal, I'm actually helping them too. Because when an animal is healthy and happy has a good quality of life, everybody feels better. And there's actually just a ton of fascinating research in how animals, again, can decrease anxiety, decrease our blood pressure.

            Animals are integrated into different types of settings now, like human therapy, physical therapy, mental health settings, because there's just so many kind of physiologic benefits, as well as just emotional benefits. We think of the human animal bond when you think of service animals and therapy animals, it's just absolutely amazing how we can be better together, is kind of what it boils down to. But then there's also the other side of the coin. There's a moral imperative that we need to take good care of our animals, and that's really where the veterinary profession comes in. Of course, we think of that care for the animals, but we also think of how everybody benefits when animals are healthy and happy.

Dave Blanks:

Could you share a story of an animal that you had a bond with? And we can maybe end with that. I don't want you to be too emotional or anything like that, but I would like to know if this was part of why you do what you do.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Oh yeah. I could talk to you all day long about why I do this. I'm extremely fortunate to do what I do. As I mentioned, I've always known I wanted to be a veterinarian. I've always loved animals. There was something about that bond that really spoke to me. And I also feel like as I mentioned at the beginning, the people in this profession, when I think about how caregiving they are and how much of themselves they give to animals and to this human animal bond, it's the most amazing group of people I've ever met. And so there is that piece. And as far as animals themselves, I have lots of stories, but I will share my favorite cat. Her name was Mango. She was part of my fruit trio.

Dave Blanks:

Understood.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Yeah. So when I started veterinary school, I was all by myself. I lived actually on a farm. I took care of a family's horses for them, and they were just wonderful. But I was a little bit lonely. So I was happy to find a companion. So I found Mango. She was coming from the shelter environment and she got me through veterinary school. She was my constant companion, she laid on my lap and let's be honest, on my notes as I was trying to study. And she moved with me to my internship, she moved to Charlotte, she moved with us to Blacksburg. And she passed away a couple years ago, but she was the best cat. She was so sweet. She always knew when you needed a cuddle, and she got me through a lot of tough times in my life. So we actually planted a tree in honor of Mango at the house that we just moved away from in Blacksburg, a beautiful Jane Magnolia tree, which is probably just about to blossom and I'm very sad to miss it.

Dave Blanks:

Well, you'll have to plant another one in Mango's honor. Yeah.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

Yes, I would love to.

Dave Blanks:

Well, Virginia, thank you so much for sharing today. I want to learn more about the program. I'm excited about the program and we will do more podcasts. We'll share more stories of the Appalachian State University veterinary technology program and I'm excited to hear about them. Again, thank you so much for coming by. I really appreciate you for being here.

Dr. Virginia Corrigan:

This is such a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Dave Blanks:

If you love animals, a degree in veterinary technology may be just what you need in your life, put that love for animals to work for you. No matter your busy schedule, you'll learn to capably assist veterinarians and prepare for certification exams to take advantage of a flourishing job market and ensure that pets get the care they need. You can find out more by going online to the vet tech website, that's vettech.appstate.edu. On the next episode of Vet Tech Talk, we'll be speaking with Jen Sterling, the assistant director of the new four year online program in veterinary technology. She'll share more interesting info about the program, as well as the animals in her life. Vet Tech Talk is at production of university communications here at Appalachian State. Check out more of our podcasts by going online to podcasts.appstate.edu. I'm Dave Blanks. Thanks so much for listening to Vet Tech Talk and have a great day.