RUSVM Granted Full AVMA Accreditation :)

Today is an exciting day for me and everyone on campus since the AVMA has finally granted Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine full accreditation until their next site visit in 2018! This is extremely exciting news and the morale on campus is high. As I walked onto campus this morning I was met with more smiling faces than I've seen in a long time and the campus is just buzzing with excitement. Outside of my first class one of my classmates was outside the door in tears because she was just that ecstatic! During the lunch hour the entire campus gathered on the lawn outside of the Student Union for a picture to commemorate this great accomplishment. As Dr. Burns, one of deans, shared, "I've never seen an organization hit one so far out of the park as we did in gaining accreditation". For many all this accreditation means is that they don't have to take yet another standardized test to "prove" their intelligence, but to others it means much more. AVMA accreditation opens up many opportunities for Ross grads, but also proves that our school is just as good as any other. As relayed by one of my professors, students on campus now have affirmation that they made a good decision in choosing to come to this school; now they can proudly tell their families that they made the right choice. While here at Ross we meet day to day challenges that we most likely wouldn't in the states, our experience here is a great one. People before us worked hard for this to happen and we will continue that work into the future. Ross has created a fantastic reputation and it is well known in the veterinary community that Ross graduates make awesome veterinarians. Now with accreditation we are on exact same playing field as our fellow colleagues at state schools and it feels good!

Mid-Semester Break, Kennel Clean-Out, & Life Goes On.

Last week marked the middle of the semester and while this semester has flown by it also seems to have dragged on for eternity. I can honestly say that it was wonderful having a day off last week, but I probably need another month off to fully recover and recharge this semester. Everyone I know seems to be at their breaking point, and hey the glass is still half full (ugh!). Haha, leave it to me to turn an optimistic statement into a pessimistic one!

Since I haven't written in a while I'll start with last weekend, since you know, I actually had a little bit of fun. Friday's Burrito Night was a huge success and I'm pretty sure we all had fun with that. I pretty much did nothing, but sleep all day Saturday, but Saturday night we went on a Cat Trip (that stands for catamaran, sorry no kitties were involved). The trip was lots of fun although there were times that I was extremely happy that I knew the captain because the water was ROUGH! The rest of the weekend was sort of a blur because I slept pretty much the entire time… can you tell vet school is draining?

Aside from that this week was pretty uneventful. I made pizza dough on Friday and that was a messy adventure here in the humidity that is St. Kitts. Yesterday, (Saturday) was a very productive day (if you discount studying since none of that got done), but in the morning I went to the PAWS Adoption Day and spoke with the founders of a new Non-For-Profit called CARE-Nevis. I'm trying to do some foster work with them since they are trying to set up a rescue organization over on Nevis, the sister island of St. Kitts. After adoption day I headed over to the Campus Kennels for the AOCC sponsored Kennel Clean-Out. We had an amazing turn out and everyone really pitched in to both bath the colony dogs and wash all of the kennels. While gross, it was a very rewarding experience and you could just tell that the dogs really appreciated it!

As for this upcoming week, I have a bunch to do and including a parasitology exam. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but to those of you who I don't see/ get to talk to I really do miss you and I can't wait until I'm back in the States for a little while in April!