Well, it is officially August. Despite the blazing temperatures outside in my home state, it seems that summer is nearing its official end. The final weeks leading up to school starting come with mixed emotions. Of course, there is the dull ache of no more pool parties and fun vacations for a bit, but at least for me, there is a nervous excitement for another challenging semester and getting to see my friends who have been scattered across the country for the last few months. By this point, we have all looked into our course schedule and nervously laughed at just how many hours we are going to be spending at school. Perhaps you have even started planning for how you are going to keep your school schedule balanced with your hobbies and social life.
Something you may not have considered yet is club membership.
At Oklahoma State, the admissions office, class ambassadors, and club officers arrange an admitted student’s day to welcome the new first-years. This day is full of tours and relevant information for the incoming students, including our school’s SAVMA (Student American Veterinary Medicine Association) chapter giving a small introduction to some of the available clubs. Due to the large volume of information thrown at us, most of the information was about the benefits of SAVMA membership, with a small nod to the various clubs that SAVMA offers. Later that day, many clubs set up tables to sell merchandise, though there was still no opportunity to talk about what clubs have to offer students due to just how crazy a day like that is. The first time we got to learn more about clubs was at the club fair that SAVMA set up for us to explore our options a couple of weeks into the semester. I joined a few clubs, and over the last year, learned a lot about what to look for.
If you were a member of a club during your undergraduate studies, a lot of this will seem familiar, but vet school clubs are often much more niche. The governing structures within the clubs are the same, with a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, etc. Clubs are usually under the SAVMA umbrella, meaning that to be a member of most clubs, you must be a SAVMA member. As an aside, SAVMA membership comes with many benefits outside of eligibility to join clubs and is worth having even if your school does not require it. Many clubs are national organizations, with chapters at most AVMA-accredited Veterinary schools. These clubs often hold annual national conferences where members can travel, learn, and network with peers from other schools. Many clubs are locally run, meaning that they are unlikely to have a national organization governing them.
These clubs are still worth looking into and joining, as they often have fantastic wet labs where you can learn skills that are less emphasized in school. For example, a club that I am a member of is Internal Medicine and Emergency Critical Care Services (IMECCS). This club does not have a national organization that I am aware of and may not be available or have a different name at your school. Members can sign up for wet labs that allow you to practice various skills, from placing chest tubes to performing a venous cut-down. A not-so-insignificant benefit of joining many clubs is that clubs love feeding you at their meetings! Since club dues are usually pretty inexpensive, I have found that, in the long run, I save more money on food than I spend on dues.
If your school has a club fair, I highly recommend you attend. This is a good opportunity to ask club officers about what their club actually does, plus many clubs will have prizes available to win if you sign up with them that day. It will be chaotic, as these events are often pretty busy, but try to take the time to really absorb some information about each club. You should definitely sign up for clubs that align with your interests. This will allow you to get more specific information about your species or specialty of interest than you can get in class. I would also recommend joining clubs that seem potentially interesting that you have not yet considered joining. A lot of people discover what their passion truly is in vet school, so joining a club that is a specialty you’ve never really considered is a great idea. I know that at our school’s chapter of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, many people discover a passion for pathology.
Joining at least one national organization is a great idea. The opportunity to network with students from other colleges is fantastic, and making friends across the country in your industry is always a great idea. For students going to school out of state, many of these clubs will have chapters in your home state, providing continued support after graduation wherever you end up moving. National organizations also can have extra scholarships to apply for. Through the Veterinary Business Management Association (VBMA), there was a large scholarship available to each winner of a strange but very educational competition. Each chapter formed a team of three members who were to run a virtual Veterinary hospital and make business decisions over the span of three years. The competition was weeks long and involved competition between your clinic and AI-controlled clinics that reacted to your decisions. Each member of the winning team received a $10,000 scholarship from Merck Animal Health. I took part in this competition, and even though I did not win, I found the experience to be very fun and rewarding.
Other clubs like the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and the ACVP also offer various scholarships to members. National clubs are also more likely to offer a higher variety of wet labs, due to more available funding. The AAEP, for example, does several wet labs per year near my area, and will often even help cover travel and lodging costs for members traveling to attend a wet lab. There are for sure clubs that provide these services that I am not mentioning, so it is worth researching before you write a club off completely.
At this point, it is reasonable to ask how you are going to know which clubs to sign up for. Asking the officers at the club fair is a great way, but there are some other pieces to think about that are hard to get at a fair. Generally, larger clubs are more active because they receive better funding and recognition. This leads to clubs like the VBMA, AAEP, and ACVP at my school providing a lot of lunch and learns, meetings, wet labs, and other events throughout the year. Being a member of a larger, national club can potentially make your membership easier to recognize on a resume, as well. The downside of joining a large club is that, if you have leadership aspirations, the officer elections will be much more competitive. Smaller clubs usually have smaller elections, and officers can sometimes have more decision-making ability due to less potential micromanagement from a national organization.
Being an officer in a club is not an essential part of vet school, but it does allow you to practice leadership skills and can look good on scholarship applications. I recommend you ask a few people in the classes ahead of you what clubs they are in or recommend. People love sharing their opinions, so you will likely have a lot of luck just asking around. If your school pairs you up with a second-year student, they are a great resource to ask for suggestions. The great thing about clubs is that, while they are great organizations that provide a lot for students, they are totally optional. This means that if you join a club and do not like it, there is no obligation to keep going back. Clubs will often have a point system to encourage you to attend meetings and events, but I have never heard of a club requiring attendance before. So, if you don’t like one of the clubs you’re in, all it costs you is the dues you paid.
My final recommendation regarding clubs is to pay attention to what isn’t offered. With approval from your school’s administration, you might be able to start a club that other people would join! For example, at my school, there was no cat-specific club. Some clubs targeting small animal general practice and surgery would cover a lot about cats, but it was mixed with other small companion animals. A few years ago, a student recognized the hole and started Oklahoma State’s chapter of the Feline Veterinary Medical Association. Each year, the club has grown, and I am confident it will continue to do so. If you want to start a club, it does not necessarily have to be Veterinary-related. After all, we are supposed to do things other than school sometimes. A pathology resident at my school started a trail running club, and one of our professors sponsors a recreational soccer club! I could very well see a place for more sports clubs, book clubs, or even something more niche like a crocheting club.
Access to clubs is an often underrecognized benefit of being in Veterinary school and can help you discover passions in this field that you may not be aware you have. Taking advantage of these clubs leads to a more fulfilling and fun Veterinary school experience by exposing you to various lectures, wet labs, and symposiums put on by professors and other experts in that field. As veterinarians, we are to be leaders to our teams and in our industry. Clubs provide opportunities to practice leadership and hone those skills in ways that a classroom environment simply cannot.
Good luck and have a great start to the school year!