Hey there Shelties —
People find themselves in animal welfare from all types of backgrounds. When I travel around to shelters, I often ask staff how they came to be at the shelter. While some took fairly traditional routes working their way up from cleaning kennels to managing missions, more often than not people smile somewhat shy smiles, and then come out with the most interesting of answers. “I was a nurse; I ran a hotel; I worked in child welfare.” In some cases, we wandered in as volunteers and never left. In other cases, a passion for the field caused us to take a leap into the unknown.
We would love to hear from you regarding how you came to work in your shelter. To start the ball-rolling, I offer you my story.
In the late 80s, I trained as an English teacher, with a passion for equal opportunity education and adult learners. After completing a Master’s degree during which I spent most of my time teaching for the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at Binghamton University, I moved to Washington DC to teach at-risk teens in a charter school in NE, not far from the Capital building. We routinely had no heat or running water, and minimal textbooks. I wrote Oprah at one point asking for help. It was challenge, punctuated by struggle.
For volunteer work in my copious spare time, I headed to the DC Animal Shelter. When some of my students took their anger out on a kitten, I started a humane education program at our school. One year led to another, and eventually I ended up being accepted to veterinary school. From there, I found myself in one of the first shelter medicine classes and serving as a student rep on the Board of Directors for our local animal shelter. And as they say, the rest was history…
Your turn… write us with your story at sheltermedicine@cornell.edu and with your permission we would love to include it in future posts! Feel free to send along a photo or two with your story!
Best wishes,
Elizabeth Berliner, DVM, DABVP (SMP), Director of Shelter Medicine
