Interview With Vet Student, Hayley Jenkins

Q: Hi! Super excited to be able to have this opportunity! Starting off with the first question, could you tell me how you got into vet school and what your experience with that was? 

A: Yeah, so I started volunteering at the Thompson horse stables when I was around 10 years old. At the time,I just kind of wanted to spend time with horses, but it really taught me a lot of animal husbandry skills and horse skills. And then I started working at the Thompson vet clinic, since I'm from Thompson, which is a northern community in Manitoba. Yeah, I was 13, and I worked there from 13 to 18, when I left for university. I also volunteered and worked at the Thompson Humane Society in high school, and also with an animal protection officer. And then, , while I was in high school, I was in different clubs. I always kind of from a really young age that I wanted to be a veterinarian, so I knew which courses to take in high school for which undergrad degree I wanted to take. And then I did my undergrad degree, my prerequisites at the University of Manitoba. So I did a Bachelor of Science in agriculture with a major in animal systems. I chose to go there, mainly because I had a scholarship to go to the U of M, and then I chose an animal systems degree over a regular bachelor of science because I have a lot of large animal experience at the time, and it's really important to be a well rounded applicant. So I knew, this way it would give me work opportunities and in the large animal field, and then would give me opportunity, like all my classes were animal based. And then summers between university, like my undergrad years, one summer, I worked as a swine technician for high life, and then I worked at a vet clinic in Winnipeg for a bit, and then I was an animal health staff student for the Manitoba government. So I worked for veterinary epidemiologists. You're able to do your prerequisites to get into vet school over two years. I did three years so so I just spread out my pre reqs over three years, but also filled my other spots, because I had a full course load with what I needed to finish my degree, and I kind of just did it that way because your prereqs for vet school are really heavy, and you spread them out a bit, it gave me the opportunity I could focus more on those hard classes and not be so overwhelmed. And then, I applied for my first time in my third year of undergrad, and then I got accepted on my first try. 

Q: Cool! My second question for you, what made you want to become a vet? You said that you already knew that you wanted to become a vet at a young age, but what do you think made you realize that? 

A: Well, I always really loved animals. And then growing up, I had my childhood dog, Tiz, and we were best buddies, always together. And then I just remember always kind of being interested and wanting to go to the vet with my mom, whenever she took my dogs to the vet. He was also the vet first that I worked for, but Dr Bingham, when I was super young, would always help me, show me what he was doing and explain everything to me. So I thought that was pretty special growing up. And then I started working at the vet clinic. When I started working there, I was cleaning, but they said, if I was interested in something, I could watch or help out. And then eventually I became, like an assistant, and worked there in the summers, and then eventually got to do more. But I really like the medicine aspect of it, and I think the biggest thing that really solidified my decision that vet med was what I wanted to do was my work with the Humane Society. So I work rescuing and rehabilitating animals. And I just always really loved how animals could come from such horrible places and be in such bad condition, and they always had so much resiliency, nice to be able to help them that way. And then I really knew that that's what I wanted to do, make sure animals had a pain free life and someone advocating for them, especially when there is no one advocating for them. 

Q: Thanks for sharing? Sp, the next question is more so about your life as a student. Could you tell me what a normal day as a vet student looks like for you?

A: 

Part 1: So, your first, second and third year is all classroom, and then your fourth year is practical. So in your first, second and third year, you're usually at school. Classes start at 8:30am and they usually go to 4:30pm or 5:30pm and you have one hour classes and then an hour at lunch. So it's like a full time job. Well, from 8:30am to 4:30pm sometimes 5:30p, if you had a lab that went late or something. Usually I would get up around 7am, go to school, spend all day in class. Each class was an hour, and you had 10 minute breaks in between them.

Comment: So kind of like high school?

Part 2: Yeah, it definitely has more of a structure, like high school than undergrad. And then yeah, I usually would get my lunches. I was involved in a lot of clubs and student organizations so  they usually have meetings at lunch, and there's a cafeteria in the vet school, so lots of people would hang out there. And then, usually I would go home around five or six, eat and then study between every night, two to four hours a night. It kind of depended on if I had anything going on in the evening. So if I had a club or I was at a volleyball intramural, I would make sure to study more the night before, so that I would go do something like that. Then on the weekends, that would be your big study time. So I would usually study six to 10 hours a day on Saturday, and then on Sunday,

Part 3: But usually, if you have your exams, they’re always on a Monday or a Thursday at 8am so you always have the weekend and you get Wednesday afternoons off to give some time to study. But usually, if you had a few exams and then a break, I would make sure to take a few days off of studying. You need to give yourself some time to rest. And then, in fourth year you have rotations so you're not in the classroom at all. In fourth year, you have two week rotations. A few of them are required that you do at the vet school, because they have a specialty hospital there, and then others. So I was in Manitoba for a bit. But you change where you are every two weeks, and your schedule can vary. So your week, you could either have a 40 hour week or you could have an 80 hour week, depending on the rotation. 

Q: Alright, so still on the subject about your life as a vet student, how do you keep a good balance between your school and personal life? Because it seems like you participate in a lot of things like clubs, meetings, and then you have school and everything, so how do you balance all of that?

A: Yeah, I mean, it was hard to balance it all, and I feel like I'm still learning how to have a good balance. In vet school, your academics do have to be a priority. You spend a lot of time studying, but if you don't focus on your mental health and your physical health, your academics are going to suffer. So first year, I remember being very overwhelmed with the amount of content and kind of my study time was going into when I should be sleeping, and then I felt like my grades weren't doing as well, and it's a hard mental block, because you think: Oh, if I study more, I'm going to do better. But no, you also need to sleep. So I feel like I learned that pretty early on that my grades will do better if I get a good night's sleep. I mean, with my extracurriculars that I did, I think it all depends on knowing yourself. The leadership activities I did made me feel very fulfilled, so even though at some times I was busy and it could be stressful, it just made me feel good, and I was happy to do it. But sometimes that's not for everybody, and you have to find the things that make you happy. One really nice thing about school is that all your friends have the exact same schedule, everybody's doing the exact same courses, and your tests are the exact same time. So anytime you hang out, it's times that everybody's able to hang out, right? Like, everybody hangs out or has a social event after a test. So that was really nice, and it's just important to build your friendships in that school too, because that's what's gonna help you get right? So yeah, it definitely was difficult, and I don't think I did it perfectly, prioritizing sleeping and eating well is just really important, and if you don't, then your academics are going to suffer.

Q: Ok, next question, what has been the most surprising thing about vet school?

A: That's a hard question. I feel like I knew I wanted to go into vet school for a long time, so I did a lot of research. So I don't know how surprised I was. Well we have a student organization. It's called the WCBSA, so the Western College Veterinary Student Organization, and we host a lot of social events, like just fun events for vet students to do. And I think I was kind of surprised by how many different types of events the vet students held. Despite being, having to study so much and having such a heavy course load, we still were able to do a lot of fun things together and build really good friendships. 

Q: Cool! Ok, so what advice would you give to someone thinking about applying to vet school?

A: So, your experience is a really big part of getting into vet school. And I think when you're going and volunteering or working somewhere, it's really good to try to understand what's happening and not just going through the motions. So say, you're at a vet clinic and they're giving vaccines, and they're like, Hey, can you hold this dog for me to give vaccines? Try to talk to the veterinarian. Try and ask, Oh, what are these vaccines? What are they for? When you have the opportunity to be in conversations with clients, listen to conversations with clients, what are the veterinarians saying? Why are they? How are they explaining the importance of vaccines? Really trying to get the most out of your experience and asking vets questions, even if it seems silly, we all know we all started at the same spot. And usually, if a vet has a student with them, they're more than happy to teach them. So I think that would be my big advice, and also write down, when you get home after a day at the vet clinic, and if you learn something, write it down. That's what I did, I would write down things I learned, conversations I had, and then when I went to go prepare for my interview, I was able to look back on that, which was really great, because in the interview, they will ask you specific questions. It's one thing to say: I worked at a vet clinic for five years, but they want to know if you actually learned something while you were there. And then I think another piece of advice I would have is, when you're in university, try, at least for one year, to take a full course load, because your course load is so heavy in that school, you're in third year, you take 21 classes, which is double the amount of classes of. A regular you know, you're essentially taking double a full course load. It's really important to try to prepare yourself for that. So I recommend trying to take a full course load in university if you can. Like, everyone's circumstance is different, right? Because some people have to work, some people are parents. But I think that could help prepare you a bit for vet school.

Q: Ok, next question, what made you want to take on leadership roles while you're a student?

A: Yeah, well, I just feel like I have a really strong passion for leadership and being involved, like I was part of the USS you so the University of Saskatchewan Student Organization or a union, and you're just able to make such a difference, someone needs to step up and be the voice for students. And I feel like I really care about the students' experience and I'm willing to do it. So it makes me feel really fulfilled. And honestly, you build great relationships, and you meet people who are such incredible leaders that you can learn so much from and it's really nice to be able to make a difference, and for students to feel like they can have someone to come to. 

Q: For the next question, I wanted to ask you how the vet field is changing and what skills do you think future vets will need? I’ve done a little research and I see that there’s a lack of vets in rural areas. I’m not sure if that’s super accurate but I just wanted to know what your take on that?

A: Yeah, no, that's definitely true. There’s a lack of veterinarians all over but especially rural areas, and I'm going to be a rural mixed animal veterinarian. So right now, I'm going to a clinic with one other veterinarian, and he does the on-call, 24/7, and so I'm splitting it with him. And that's a lot for one person to handle. I mean, I thought a lot about this. What would need to happen in certain areas. There's something called call sharing, so it's where vet clinics kind of team together, and they share the on call, so that the burden isn't always on one veterinarian and they're separate. The vet clinics, they’re not business partners, but they share the on-call. And I just think that, more rural vet clinics are going to have to do that, because it always falls on the shoulders of a few people, and then that's how people get burnt out, and then you have nobody, right? Yeah, so I think that as a veterinary community right now, sometimes it can be very isolating, and everyone's for themselves, but I think in the long run, we really need, all vets need to be a team and help each other out, no matter if you're competing businesses for the health of the animals and for all the veterinarians mental health, we need to really start working together. 

Q: Cool! Alright, I think this will be the last question. How has your leadership experience helped shape your future goals?

A: I think that my leadership, especially in vet school, I was the class president. So as the class president, if there were ever concerns in your class, your classmates would bring it to you, and then you would have to bring it up to administration. And, I'm not a confrontational person at all. It makes me very uncomfortable. I'm the type of person that just likes to keep the peace. But that's not always the right thing right? Sometimes, things are wrong and someone needs to stand up for what's right. And I think especially being the class president has really pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me force me to have these difficult conversations that needed to be had. And I'm just so grateful for that experience. Because as a veterinarian, no matter if you own the clinic or not, you are a leader and you're a boss, right? You have veterinary technicians, receptionists, assistants, and you have and you work with so many clients, so I'm really grateful for my leadership in that way, because it's pushed me out of my comfort zone, and now I feel like I can hopefully have a better base of how I want to be a leader. I'm a boss, and then I have plans in the future to be part of the MVMA, the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association and maybe even the CVMA one day, and I think all those leadership experiences will have helped me eventually get to that point.