Joseph Lee Capstone

For my capstone, I decided to create a website the gives aspiring vets a step by step process on how to become a veterinarian. The purpose of my website is to help guide aspiring veterinarians on the path to achieving a career within the veterinary field. The site covers a wide array of topics that will span over the entire process of becoming a veterinarian. The topics include "Early Commitment to Academic Success", "Getting Involved", "College Preparation", "Externship Opportunities", and a Conclusion of finally being a vet. The reason why I chose this to make this my capstone is because I never had a step by step process for this career laid out for me. So I decided to create my own process based off of my detailed research and knowledge gained from volunteering at the Wyncote Animal Hospital. The process for my capstone went pretty smoothly for the most part. I had know problem with gathering all of my resources, working with Dr. Wade at the Wyncote Animal Hospital, and creating my website. The only issue was trying to balance both capstone work and regular school work. Looking back on everything I’ve done leading up to the publishing of my website, I realized that I learned so much from my own process. I now have a better understanding of what needs to be done in order to get into a vet school and I now understand the whole process of acquiring a veterinary licence.

Bibliography

“History of the veterinary profession.” RCVS Knowledge, https://knowledge.rcvs.org.uk/heritage-and-history/history-of-the-veterinary-profession/ . Before talking about how to be a veterinarian, I wanted to do some digging into the origins of veterinary medicine. To find out who was truly the first veterinarian. This source provided me with all the information I needed on the origins of veterinary medicine. According to this source, the first "animal healer" was a man named Urlugaledinna and he lived in Mesopotamia during 3000 BC. The first veterinary school was founded in 1761 in Lyon, France by a man named Claude Bourgelat. This source is credible because it was written by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London, England.

“How Much do Vets Make a Year?” How to Become a Veterinarian, www.veterinarianedu.org/2017/06/how-much-do-vets-make-a-year/.  One of the reasons why I want to be a veterinarian is because I would get to do what I love and get paid a whole lot of money for it. This source provides me with a very detailed layout of the salary ranges for different kinds of veterinarians and their level of demand. According to this source, it turns out that Horse vets make the most money and they're in high demand. The credibility of this source is very good because it was created by Veterinarian.EDU. This is an organization whose purpose is to veterinarians in the right directions of their career path. This source has been very beneficial for me because before deciding what kind of vet I wanna be, I wanna know how good of a living I make make from that specialty. So reading through this source was very eye opening for me and it has inspired me to want to look more in the horse field of veterinary medicine.

“Kansas State University.” CVM Diversity | History: Prominent African Americans in Veterinary Medicine, www.vet.k-state.edu/about/diversity/history-aa.html.  As a black person that wants to be apart of a profession that is predominantly white, It is important to me that I learn about other black veterinarians in history. This source gives me a list of black veterinarians and brief summaries of how they came to be vets. This source is credible because it was created by Kansas State University, which happens to be a college of veterinary medicine. This page was written because they wanted to shed some light on history's vets of color. Finding this source was so inspiring because I never knew about any of these men or that there were many black veterinarians. Knowing all of this now gives me a legacy to live up to. To be that beacon of diversity like all the black vets before me.

Kramer, Mary Hope. “Learn About Being a Large Animal Veterinarian - Job Duties and More.” The Balance, www.thebalance.com/large-animal-veterinarian-125800. Out of all the veterinary specialties, I'm very intrigued by the large animal specialty. Big animals have always been interesting to me growing up because they just stand out. This source gives me all the stats on what it is like to be a large animal veterinarian. It talks about the education needed, the training, the duties, the career options, the salaries, and the job outlook. This source is credible because the author, Mary Hope Kramer, is an animal industry professional and writer with over a decade of experience of being a small and large animal vet. If I were to become a large animal vet, I would want to work with not just the farm animals, but also the large zoo animals.

Kramer, Mary Hope. “8 Steps to Start a Veterinary Practice.” The Balance, www.thebalance.com/how-to-start-a-veterinary-practice-125508. Even though I'm not sure if I want to start my own practice in the future, this is a great source to refer to now. This source gives you a detailed step by step process on how to smoothly start your own practice. It seems like a lot work, but it's an exceptional challenge in independency. The credibility of this source is very good because this article was also written by animal industry professional, Mary Hope Kramer. I trust her writing because as I wrote before, she has experience in the veterinary field. So it's good to learn from someone who's actually been through a process of becoming a vet and is a business woman.

“List of Veterinary Schools | Costs for Veterinary Students.” JobMonkey, www.jobmonkey.com/animaljobs/vet-schools/ . This source is credible because it is providing me with a long list of veterinary schools that are in the united states and in other countries as well. On this list, each name of the vet schools provides you with a hyperlink to their school website that has all the information you need in terms of in/out of state tuition, location, student to faculty ratio, size of the student body, etc. This source is beneficial for me because it helps me to know where to look for vet schools. Before this website, I really only knew of four or five vet schools, now I know all of them. I don't know which vet school I want to attend yet, but it is still nice to have some options.

“Steps to Becoming a Veterinarian (Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Major).” Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Major (Penn State University), http://vbs.psu.edu/majors/vbs/steps-to-becoming-a-veterinarian. This source is basically the whole premise of my capstone project. It is a whole step by step process that puts you on the right path to becoming a veterinarian. This source is credible because it was created by a higher education institution, Penn State University. Penn State is able to discuss this because they have their own veterinary and biomedical science major for aspiring vets such as myself. This source is very beneficial to me because it will be used as a referral for when I create my own step by step process to show in my prezi presentation.

“Summer Vets Programs.” PennVet, www.vet.upenn.edu/education/admissions/summer-vets-program. This source is actually pretty personal for me because I actually took part in UPenn' s summer vets program last summer and I learned a lot about the different studies in vet school, what it takes to get into a vet school, and the different professions within the veterinary field. This source was credible because it was created by the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. I will be able to benefit from this source a lot because it touches on the studies that aspiring vet students will have the options to take if the attend a vet school. I think this could be some helpful information for my presentation.

“ Veterinary specialists.” Veterinary specialists, www.avma.org/public/YourVet/Pages/veterinary-specialists.aspx. When aspiring to be a veterinarian, one must know all of the different specialties before coming to a conclusion on which one they want to be. This source gives you a complete list of the many types of veterinary specialties and a quick summary of what each specialty entails. This source is credible because it was created by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF). "The AVMA is the nation’s leading advocate for the veterinary profession. Representing more than ​91,000 members, they protect, promote and advance the needs of all veterinarians and those they serve." This source is very beneficial for me because I'm still figuring out what kind of vet I want to be. To see this list helps a lot because it'll help me weed out the professions that don't fit my needs.

Wulf, M., and A. Voss. “MRSA in livestock animals-an epidemic waiting to happen?” Clinical Microbiology and Infection, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 4 Mar. 2008, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-0691.2008.01970.x/full. This source is credible because the authors of this abstract are both microbiology veterinarians who both work for prestigious laboratorys. This source is about how veterinarians who specialize in large farm animals are in high demand to prevent the spread of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). MRSA is a zoonotic disease. What this means is that this is a type of disease that can spread from animal to human. In this specific case, MRSA has spread from pigs to humans. This source is beneficial to me because it helps me know what types of vet professions are needed in today's economy. When I begin to attend vet school after I finish my undergraduate education, I want to be able to secure a job that actually needs me.