Hey guys, my name is Caitlin and I am getting ready to start my 4th year here at the Ontario Veterinary College. I have been a student at the University of Guelph since 2009 when I started my B.Sc (Hons) in Animal Biology and ended up completing a minor in Psychology: Brain and Cognition before applying and getting into OVC. I am originally from Brampton Ontario and have wanted to be a veterinarian since I was around 8 years old.

The reason I chose to participate in the 2017 Externship Blog Project, is because I can remember being in my undergraduate degree and thinking OVC was a distant world across the street on Gordon, and honestly, it made it very intimidating. I had wanted to hear about other students experiences getting into OVC and what the program was like from Phase1 to 4, but there weren’t a lot of resources for things like that. I also remember when the Blog Project started, thinking it was so awesome getting to follow some 4th year students, and reading about their experiences; it really got me excited for the years I had coming up. Now that I’m in my 4th year, I am hoping that I will be able to shed some light on the veterinary externship experience with undergraduates, new veterinary students and the community as well, to help eliminate some of the mystery behind the process. 

I will be completing my externship at New Hamburg Veterinary Clinic in New Hamburg, Ontario this July and August. I have heard a lot of exceptional comments about this clinic, particularly surrounding its supportive learning and teaching environment and how engaging the staff is. While it is a mixed animal practice (treating both large animals and companion animals), I will have lots of opportunity to focus time on the areas that interest me most, which is primarily small animal medicine. These are a couple of the reasons I decided to complete my externship here. 

While on my externship this summer, I am hoping to gain a lot more experience working with clients, and going through the process of meeting a patient and following their case from beginning to end. Obviously, I am very excited to get more involved in surgeries, and diagnostic testing, but by the end of the summer I would love to be able to walk into an appointment room with confidence, particularly when addressing my clients’ and patients’ needs and wants.

I am very excited to share this experience with all of you and I hope you find some of my blog posts down the road interesting! "