Cornell and Beyond

freshmen year in (a very quick) academic review

May 23, 2008 at 2:14 pm | In This is it! Spring 08 | No Comments

Back to the story at hand. When I came to Cornell my freshmen year, I was undeclared major wise but doing the pre-vet requirement classes.  This basically is the same as pre-med requirements – intro bio, chem, etc.  They were rigorous classes, but I would say in hindsight they were good in terms of teaching me how to think as opposed to memorize.

Freshmen year I also volunteered with Cornell Companions, run through the vet school.  You get trained to visit nursing homes, assisted living centers and the like with other volunteers and of course the companions, the pets.  Since I didn’t have my own pet, I accompanied another volunteer and her two animals.

Over our winter break, I took part in a Cornell arranged one day externship at a private practice veterinary clinic where a Cornell alum practiced.  One of the huge advantages of going to a humongous school like Cornell is that there are a lot of resources, particularly with alumni networking.  In my case, there were actually no animal-related externships being sponsored in my hometown, so I asked the career center which ran the freshmen externships if they could help me.  They contacted an alum who had also gone to the Cornell vet school and behold I was able to shadow him for a day.  I think these programs are great to either get experience in an area you know you want to go into or explore an area you are possibly interested in.  For me the shadowing experience showed me that veterinary medicine was probably not for me.  I realized I would be just as satisfied having a menagerie at home and pursuing a different vocation for my career.

But what to do next?