Seven biology and animal science students from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College have recently been accepted into top veterinary programs after participating in the Pre-Vet Club, a new program designed to streamline and track the acceptance rate of ABAC students into veterinary colleges.

Emily Atkinson from Forsyth and Dylan Dent from Jesup are both animal science majors while Jaylin Johnson from Valdosta, Macy Logo from Statesboro, Kiley McClure from Abbeville, Ala., Mackenzie Pollock from Lawrenceville, and Karli Williams from Hazlehurst are all biology majors. They participated in the new program started by Dr. Jenny Harper, an ABAC biology professor, in conjunction with Dr. Hemant Naikare at the University of Georgia Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

A grant was awarded to ABAC’s Department of Science and Mathematics and the UGA Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to identify students with an interest in veterinary medicine and/or diagnostic sciences and provide these students with opportunities for experiential learning in a mentored research setting. The ABAC Pre-Vet Club recruits students, primarily biology and animal science majors, and provides them with specialized workshops, seminars, coursework, internships, and research presentations that increase their chances of getting accepted into veterinary programs.

Harper said that the project’s main goal is to increase the number of underrepresented undergraduate students qualified to apply to veterinary medicine programs in hopes that those students return to rural areas to practice.

“When we say underrepresented, we mean students that are from rural areas, that are first generation college attendees, and that come from socioeconomically challenged backgrounds,” Harper said. “Not only are very few students from rural areas of Georgia applying to vet school, but there is also a very poor return of graduating veterinarians deciding to practice in rural areas, leaving those areas in great need of professionals.”

Harper said that ABAC has great students with high grades, but they were not “checking the boxes” that would get them accepted at veterinary schools. She said she wanted to change that, so she and Naikare created a brand-new program and applied for a grant from the USDA to fund it.

She said that as far as she knows, ABAC is the only school in the country that has a program like this.

“When we wrote that grant, we didn’t copy it from anything,” Harper said. “Everything about it is unique to us. It’s been very rewarding just to get to see how it does benefit these students that want to become vets.”

Not only does the program provide a framework to show students how to meet the necessary veterinary school admission requirements, it also provides support and keeps track of how many apply and get accepted. Harper said tracking the acceptance rate is important to both draw in prospective pre-vet students and celebrate current students as well.

“We are really proud of all of our students, and we want to share in their achievements,” Harper said. “I think that because we’re such a small school, we oftentimes get overlooked as being a great school. But we are a great school, and we’ve got great kids coming out of here.”

Harper said that veterinary school is more competitive than almost any other field. A lack of opportunities to fulfil all the vet school application requirements is one of the problems the grant program and the pre-vet club seeks to solve by partnering with the diagnostic lab at UGA, one of only two labs in Georgia, to give students 135 supervised lab hours.

Williams, who has been accepted to UGA, Auburn University and Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., agreed that knowing the vet school acceptance rate for ABAC is important for prospective students.

“I didn’t come to ABAC because I wanted to be a veterinarian,” she said. “I came for softball. Had I known that ABAC had an acceptance rate for veterinarians, that would have been even more encouraging for me to come here. If this school is producing successful veterinarians and they’re getting accepted, put me in the program. For (Harper) to be able to keep up with that and track us and tell somebody else that is an incoming freshman … that is going to be real encouraging for her to tell somebody next year.”

Atkinson, who has been accepted to both the University of Florida and the St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grenada, West Indies, said that the biggest benefit for her was the opportunity to intern in the veterinary diagnostic laboratory at UGA Tifton.

“The vet lab is such a unique experience,” she said. “I worked at a veterinary clinic all throughout high school and the doctor would say to package something up and send it to the lab. I didn’t know what they were doing with it at the lab, so being able to go to the lab and do all the different sections was very unique. I think it’s important for students that are going to become veterinarians to know what goes on in the lab.”

She said she has also made connections with doctors and gained research opportunities by working at the lab, which had a big impact on her education.

“I didn’t even know there was a vet lab in Tifton,” she said.

Harper said gaining experience in the veterinary diagnostic lab gives students an advantage during the application process. Urban areas have more clinics, and therefore more opportunities for supervision hours for students in those area. Those same opportunities are not always available for rural students.

Williams said that the pre-vet club was a great opportunity for her.

“One of the biggest things I realized at the diagnostic lab as an intern was that I was able to take information I was learning in class and use that,” she said. “I was able to see that this is why the curriculum we have here at ABAC teaches me this, so I know that if I’m in this field, this is how I can apply it.”

Both students came to ABAC knowing they wanted to become veterinarians, and both had experience working with small and large animals.

“I kind of had a very limited view of what a veterinarian does and all you can do with a degree as a DVM,” Williams said. “Having that experience in the lab taught me that there are so many things you can do as a DVM besides being a working veterinarian in a clinical setting. Without that grant opportunity, that internship opportunity, I would have never known that.”

She said that while her goal is still to be a small and large animal vet, she is now considering specializing in ophthalmology, especially for large animals.

Atkinson, who wants to have a mixed animal practice specializing in both traditional and holistic medicine, said that the pre-vet club and her internship gave her made her more confident about being accepted to a veterinary program.

“Having the pre-vet club gave me a lot more confidence in my abilities and being able to get the experience I needed,” she said. “ABAC is such a small school and it’s hard to find opportunities on your own.”

Williams said that knowing she didn’t have to figure out how to navigate pre-vet requirements alone was incredibly helpful for her.

“The information was laid out in front of me. I just had to put in the work to get there,” she said. “It gave me a sense of pride to be able to work towards it because I knew I wasn’t doing it alone. There were several other club members that were wanting to do the same thing, and we were working towards it together.”

For more information about ABAC’s Biology pre-vet program or the animal science program, contact the admissions office at [email protected] or call 229-391-5000.