Vet student develops computer-based study tool in a flash

News flash: At age 33, Mary Gardner, a junior veterinary student, is fast becoming an entrepreneur, marketing a computer-driven flash card study program to students not just at the University of Florida, but all over the world.

The program enables students to create flash cards on their personal computers. They can organize the cards by subject, attach pictures, test themselves, print out cards on paper and swap cards between friends.

For example, animal science majors might quiz themselves with cards that ask questions like "What is a nutrient?" "What are the six classes of nutrients?" or "What type of cattle is this?"

"If you have a PDA, you can put the cards on the PDA version of the software to study away from your PC," Gardner said.

This may not exactly be news to members of the class of 2008, who first heard about Gardner's program a few weeks after starting veterinary school in the fall of 2004. At that time, Gardner had reserved a classroom after hours to present a demonstration of the product she developed with help from her father, a computer programmer, and her brother, a webmaster.

"The pitch was, we have to memorize all these facts, so let's split up the work," Gardner said. "Everyone takes a chapter and we swap the cards."

Although only about 20 of her classmates wound up buying the $29.95 software package, called PC Flashcards, nearly the entire class of 2009 purchased the program, Gardner said.

One of PC Flashcards' key selling points is that a portion of the proceeds from each sale go to a student club, class or organization the buyer designates.

"My class has earned more than $500 just from sales," Gardner said. "It's been our best fundraising event to date. There is no overhead and no inventory, and we've learned while we made the cards."

Prior to being accepted into veterinary school, Gardner traveled the world as a software training and design expert employed by the global firm Ecometry, a company that specializes in creating software for mail, phone and Web-oriented businesses such as Nordstrom, Nine West, Ross-Simons, Coach, Lego and other household names.

But after a few too many red-eye flights and fluorescent lights, as she puts it, Gardner burned out on corporate life and decided her true dream was to attend veterinary school.

"The flash card business all started because before I was able to apply for veterinary school, I had to complete my prerequisites, which naturally involved a lot of study," Gardner said. "I was making handwritten flash cards and I'd have stacks of them in my house. I thought, this is ridiculous, there needs to be a software product to automate all this."

So Gardner drew up specs and conceptualized the product. Then she asked her father if he would write the software and subsequently involved her brother in building the Web site.

Students from six other veterinary schools, including those in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and even Canada, are now using the program.

For more information about PC Flashcards, go to www.pcflashcards.com