Veterinary student club focuses on business issues at first-ever forum

This year’s annual meeting of the Florida Veterinary Medical Association featured a first-ever forum focusing on the business concerns of students and practitioners, in a sort of speed-dating style venue that encouraged discussion among participants across a range of topics.

University of Florida veterinary students who attended hope at least some lasting unions with future employers will result.

Members of the UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s chapter of the Veterinary Business Management Association, a student club, came up with the idea after attending the national VBMA meeting in Orlando in 2009. That meeting’s focus had been veterinary student debt.

“We thought those debt-related discussions were helpful, but wanted to take some of the concepts in a different direction,” said Laura Seheult, VBMA president and a member of the UF veterinary college’s class of 2012.

A committee was formed within UF’s VBMA chapter to pursue what might be done.

“We decided we wanted to address four topics,” Seheult said. “One was business education in the veterinary curriculum; the second was qualifications of graduates and what practitioners are looking for; another topic was mentorship and internships; and finally, we wanted to discuss marketing yourself and your practice.”

The result was the “Closing the Gap” seminar.

“All in all, this was a hugely successful event that we hope to improve and repeat annually at FVMA,” said Stephanie King, a member of the UF CVM’s class of 2010 and VBMA’s senior adviser. King chaired the committee that organized the event.

“Phil Hinkle (FVMA’s executive director) was especially amazing at helping us coordinate this effort, and I think that with this event, the students can start to feel a real presence of the FVMA in their career progression,” King said.

Practitioners, industry representatives, FVMA board members and even some UF veterinary faculty participated in the forum.

“To accommodate the number of people, we decided to have 16 tables, four tables per topic, and that individuals would stay with each topic for 20 minutes, then move to the next topic table,” Seheult said. “We even played the ‘Jeopardy’ theme song to help the transition. At the end of each session, we collected sheets from each table to summarize the points discussed by each group.”

The group’s goal had been to have between 60 and 80 practitioners and industry representatives present, and the FVMA helped the students advertise the event in registration fliers.

“We ended up with 45 to 50 participants and were very pleased with that,” Seheult said.

The biggest problem they experienced? People engaged so much at their tables that they didn’t want to have to get up and move to the next discussion.

“Participants said in their feedback that they needed more time, that they were just having really good discussions,” Seheult said, adding, “It’s the first time we’ve ever done this as a club and we were just so excited about the results.”

Feedback showed that for many students, one of the biggest issues involved the question of internship versus mentorship.

“Students expressed that they are planning on doing an internship because they do not feel confident or experienced enough to go straight into a private practice after graduation,” Seheult said. “But the practitioners gave the feedback that for them, mentorship could be just as good as an internship and might even be a better way to get to know the practice and how they run it.”

For Seheult, that feedback was especially meaningful.

“Practitioners were saying, ‘you guys aren’t confident at all, but we support you,’” Seheult said. “I came away from this event feeling like I have a very good support network. Additionally, the FVMA let us know that they were here for the students, that they want to be involved in our education and help us grow. For me, that was so reassuring.”