Elisa
Student Veterinary Trainee at USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
About
I'm a Student Veterinary Trainee at USDA APHIS and founder of r/prevets.
Experiences
- Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) at Colorado State UniversityStarting vet school after all 12 schools rejected me
No interviews my first cycle, and I was told the dream should stay a dream. I'm stubborn, so I reapplied.
- Master of Public Health (MPH) at Colorado School of Public HealthSouth Africa's foot-and-mouth signs led me to public health
Only five of us were picked for CSU's MPH/DVM program. I finished my master's and I'm wrapping up my capstone.
- Pennsylvania to ColoradoMoved from Pennsylvania to Colorado in a four-day ordeal
I tried to make it as cost-effective as possible, and now I help incoming classmates plan the same move.
- H5N1 Project Intern at Northest Region Healthcare CoalitionStudied whether rural Colorado is ready for bird flu
I surveyed hospitals, clinics, and care homes across 11 counties and made H5N1 materials for farmers.
- MentorshipHosted former low-GPA applicants to show it can be done
I brought together vet students and a vet who got in despite their GPAs, to share what boosted their chances.
- Co-founder at r/prevetsLaunched a Reddit just for pre-vets, apart from vet students
Pre-vets kept posting chance-me questions in the vet school forum, so a few of us made them their own.
- Research Technologist - Animal Sciences at Penn State UniversityTook my first big girl job, split between mice and PCR
Half my time went to the mouse colonies, half to the lab genotyping and analyzing mouse embryo images.
- National Laboratorian Technician Training Program Fellowship at USDA National Bio & Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF)Landed one of ten national lab fellowships amid rejections
For eight weeks I handled Blue Tongue Virus in a BSL-3 lab and caught mosquitoes with dry ice and netting.