Jack Hanna and the SAVMA Symposium

For Spring Break I went to the SAVMA (Student American Veterinary Medical Association) Symposium which was held this year at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. It was a great experience. Each day of the symposium I attended lectures from 10am-5pm. Some of the lectures that I went to include: Aquatic Animal Medicine; Cardiac Ascultation; GI Motility Disorders; Fluid Analysis; Kidney Disease; How to do a Great Neurologic Exam; Drugs in Small Animal Neonates and Emerging Animal Diseases and their Impact on Human Health. A few of the lectures were even given by the veterinarians who wrote my textbooks.
While I was very busy attending lectures, meeting and learning about the different veterinary sponsors and competing in academic competitions I also found some free time to visit the Mall of America and visit downtown Minneapolis. On the last night of Symposium, I got to hear the keynote speaker Jack Hanna speak and also work with exotic animals.
One of my motivations for attending symposium was to see what all of the other veterinary schools are teaching and where I am in comparison (because Western University is the only vet school in the U.S that has a totally Problem Based Learning Curriculum). Competing in the Anatomy challenge along with talking to a lot of other veterinary students made me more confident in Western University's teaching style. I felt that I knew just as much or even more then first year students in other veterinary programs. I am not saying that one program or school is better then others, but rather that each school is different and has its own strengths and weaknesses.
I flew back to California yesterday afternoon and have not had time to unpack or anything before starting the last block of my first year of veterinary school. This morning at 8am I had a microchipping lecture followed by my first PBL session with my new group (our groups change every 8 weeks) and then I had a clinical skills rotation where I got to microchip a cat.
Our first case this block is a porcine (pig) that aborted. Only 8 cases and 9 more weeks left until I am done with my first year of veterinary school!
The picture above is of me and other Western U students with Jack Hanna.