Another School Year Starts

Welcome back from summer vacation everyone! 2010-2011 promises to be a wonderful year for the Pre-Veterinary Medical Association. We now have record numbers of pre-veterinary students registered at FAU who have joined our organization. Not only that, but we now have a new class offering to help support our students' endeavors to gain more experience and knowledge in the veterinary field. Animal Science opened up in August 2010 and filled all 40 slots within one week of being posted! For those who could not get into the course, we will be offering it again regularly. Registration information will be posted as it becomes available.

That's not all we have to be excited about though. We are happy to announce that several of our alumni will be starting their veterinary school careers this month too!





Our little wall of fame includes third year University of Florida student Alissa Demming,








second year University of Florida student Bianca Murphy,










first year Michigan State student Rena Singer,








and first year Mississippi State student Amanda Stiles.




Be sure to visit this site regularly for updates on how they are doing and to get a glimpse of what their vet school experiences are like.

Pre-Veterianry Students Wake Up Call

Bianca writes: I was super sad to see that there is a low amount of participation for the club this year. During my interview at UF, the interview panel asked me tons of questions with two main themes: Teamwork Skills and Community Involvement.

The pre-vet club allowed me to answer many of these questions and made me feel proud! I was part of a family that worked together to make each other more successful which is what vet school is about.

Being an active member in the club allowed me to experience more within the community and helped me develop the skills to shape our team into a functioning and productive unit. Not every thing we did was a success but it's not how much money you raise or how you rank in comparison to other clubs, it's the experience of bringing people together and working towards a group cause that matters. You learn skills that are 100% applicable to being successful in class, clinics, and your profession.

I know that many people may be worried about taking on the responsibility of becoming an officer. It is an an extra responsibility and can be an added pressure when vet schools want to see 4.0 GPAs. Also, I know that applying is also extremely stressful in itself. BUT, in speaking with my classmates and learning everyone's experiences at UF, there are more people here with 3.5 GPAs and interesting and meaningful experiences than those with 4.0 GPAs.

Everyone here was ACTIVELY involved with their respective pre-vet clubs at their schools. Participating as a leader like president, VP, secretary is a BIG deal, and your biggest responsibility is to keep it going and be a support for each other to make everyone successful.

On that note, any questions anyone has about UF, don't ever be afraid to email me! bianca.murphy@ufl.edu. When I was applying, I wish I had had a contact to ask questions! I hope to see everyone at one of our Operation Catnip events soon!

Bianca Murphy
First-Year UF Veterinary Student

Changing It Up

So, over the last several months, it has become more and more difficult to try and maintain the participation of our students in PVMA activities due to busy schedules and a myriad of other issues that life throws our way. Car issues, illnesses, inflexible bosses...they all work to try and throw students off-track and it can be easy to lose focus.

In order to keep everyone focused on the prize, committed to their path, and motivated to go out and participate in activities that will help them get to where they want to go, this page has been changed. It will now be managed by two FAU alumni in order to blog about their experiences as they make their way through the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida. These students, Bianca Murphy and Alissa Demming, were FAU students just like you, struggling to make it through undergad, worried about their chances for acceptance, and working hard to try and make it to the next level.

Alissa worked at FAU as a Vertebrate Morphogenesis TA and entered the FAU masters program. She did not get in on her first try but she is now a strong student in her second year of vet school at UF.



Bianca was a member of the PVMA during our first year on campus and worked hard as our Relay For Life Chairperson. She also took advantage of directed independent study programs at Scripps to gain some much-needed experience in avian research.

Both young ladies had very different experiences and backgrounds but reached the same goal. Now, they are willing to help PVMA members learn from those experiences. Their day-to-day messages will help everyone see what skill sets these two young women are having to draw upon to make it. It will show the huge amounts of teamwork required of them to get through their coursework. I think it will also be a great way for our PVMA members to be able to ask questions in order to determine a course of action to follow in their footsteps.

If you have questions or comments, you are free to add them to this blog. Use it as a window to find out what vet school is really like and to determine if this is the right career choice for you. Be patient though. These are active students with full course loads to keep up with so responses to e-mails may be sporadic, however, I think this will be a wonderful tool for everyone to get a better idea of what they are getting themselves into and how to plan their actions accordingly to meet academic and professional goals.

So, follow along and watch the vetamorphosis!

Fall Is Off to a Roaring Start!!

Welcome back to school everyone! Summer always seems so short, however, many of you took advantage of the short break and got out there to help the planet and the community.

Treasurer, Rachael Matyisin, joined International Student Volunteers to help support forest restoration projects in Australia and Fiji. After two weeks of hard work and freezing temperatures, she also got a chance to tour "Down Under". For more information on the ISV experience, join us at our Pawsitive Energy workshop on September 22nd in the Admin Building, Room 234 6-7 PM.

FAU alumn, Alissa Deming, joined EnviroVet this summer to learn more about wildlife conservation in Tanzania. We send her our best wishes as she gets set to start her second year in vet school at UF.


Public Relations Coordinator, Alexa Majdalawi, helped local junior high and high schoolers learn how to become leaders in their schools and communities at SFLTC 2009. Alexa's commitment to teaching students how to become good leaders has been well-established tradition for the last three years. So it is with allot of excitement that we welcome her into the PVMA Executive Board as a Sophomore and hope to benefit from her skills and support.

This summer, we also wished a fond farewell to 2008-2009 Relay For Life Chair, Bianca Murphy, who earned a spot at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine this year. We wish Bianca all the best and know she'll make us proud this year at UF. Check up on our blog for updates on her progress as she goes through her VETAMORPHOSIS!!


President, Christie Gonzalez, Vice President Eunike Stenersen and Secretary Analisa Edell helped raise $500 for donation to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center to support the opening of a sea turtle hospital this fall. Way to go everyone!

With such a strong start to the year, our entire Executive Board is really looking forward to the events and opportunities planned for our members. It's going to be an exciting, fun-filled year and we hope to see you all at one of our many meetings, workhops or events.

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the FAU Welcome Back Bonfire! It was a great way to kick start the 2009-2010 school year and get into the football spirit!

Keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming events, including our first annual Slip-n-Slide Relay Competition at WetFest on September 15th, a movie presentation for "The Cove", our first PVMA meeting and workshop on September 22nd and our first ever Puppy Tailgate on September 26th. Join us in the fun and we'll see you soon! Go Owls!

Coming Soon this Fall!!

We have just a few weeks to go before school starts again this fall and we wanted to take the opportunity to invite you to a few upcoming events:

Aug 8th, 5-9 PM Bon Festival at Morikami Museum
Aug 20th, 9-4 PM FAU U-Haul Team
(help students move into On-Campus Housing)
Aug 27th, 8-10 PM FAU Welcome Back Bonfire
Aug 29th, 10-12 PM First Book hosts "Meet Ms. Florida", Stuart Yacht Club

Sept 2nd, 11-3 PM FAU ClubFest Breezeway
Sept 12th, 9-4 PM Leadership Conference
Sept 15th, 4-8 PM FAU WetFest
Sept 19th, 8-11 AM World Coastal Clean-Up

Contact Christie at cgonza48@fau.edu if you would like to participate in any of these events!