Blog 7: Independent Component 1 Approval

1. What I plan to do for my 30 hours is work at another animal hospital called the Chino Veterinary Hospital. I believe at first I might be doing office work, but later on I might be able to work with the veterinarian.

2. What I will do to show proof of my 30 hours is bring in my paycheck, but cross out the amount I have earned and any personal information. I also plan to ask the veterinarian I am working for to write a letter saying I have completed this amount of hours.

3. I want to see what the veterinarian at the Chino Veterinary Hospital does every day because not all veterinarians are the same. I want to step in the shoes of different veterinarians so I could learn and experience more from each of them. I believe this will help me learn more for my topic.

September Post - Research Books

While looking for books at the library for my research, I found 2 books in particular that have helped me better understand veterinary medicine and what veterinarians do everyday. The first book is called Tell Me Where It Hurts: A day of humor, healing, and hope in my life as an animal surgeon by Dr. Nick Trout. What I liked about this book was that the author goes in detail about what he does every hour of the day, the emotions he feels, and what he encounters. I recommend this book to veterinary medicine students and whoever is doing Veterinary Medicine for their Senior Project. The second book is called Vault Guide to Veterinary and Animal Careers by Liz Stewart. What I liked about this book was that it described the different kinds of career paths a veterinary medicine student can go into from private practice to Zookeeper. I really enjoyed reading these 2 books and I hope to find more like these throughout my senior project.

Blog 6 - Second Interview Preparation

1. My mentor is Dr. Leonard Sigdestad and he works at the Loma Linda animal hospital.

2. Questions I will ask him:
    - When was the Loma Linda animal hospital established?
    - How did you come to work at the animal hospital?
    - Did you work anywhere else before you started working at the Loma Linda animal hospital?
    - What college and graduate school did you attend?
    - Are any of your family members veterinarians?
    - When did you move to California?
    - What is the reason why you moved to California to work as a veterinarian instead of where you          grew up at (South Dakota)?

Blog 5 - Mentorship Reflection

1. Finding my mentorship was very difficult to do and I stressed a lot because of this. I had to call about 30 animal hospitals until 1, which is Loma Linda Animal Hospital, allowed me to do my mentorship at their hospital. The reason why I had to call so many was because some animal hospitals didn't allow volunteers due to insurance issues and the rest allowed volunteers, but the age limit to be a volunteer was 18 and over at those hospitals. I am grateful that Loma Linda Animal Hospital allowed me to do my mentorship there and now I am learning so much about veterinary medicine that I never knew before.

2. The most important article I have read so far was "Compassionate Vet Care: Handling Pets in a Pet Friendly Manner" by Dr. Sophia Yin, DVM. The reason why it is so important is because the info in this article is really important to know if I want to become a veterinarian when I am older. It describes how a veterinarian's care and how they handle an animal really affects the animal in a good or bad way. Veterinarians must put an animal's welfare first if they want to be a successful veterinarian.