Public health can be targeted from the level of a small local community to the level of international collaboration.  Last week, we wrote a post on the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine’s collaboration with the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) to create the first internationally accredited school of veterinary medicine in Hong Kong.  CityU has officially announced the launch of the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) program this week.

This collaboration will allow for the improvement of public health at an international level due to the foundation of a system for improved food safety as well as infectious disease detection and mitigation. As part of this collaboration, Cornell University Summer College hosted 14 high school students who were sponsored by CityU through a generous donation by Mr. Cliff Sun Kai-lit, BBS, JP, Executive Director of KinoxEnterprises Ltd.

The students participated in veterinary and animal husbandry courses alongside other international and American students.  After receiving the scholarship, one student thanked CityU and stated that she “hoped to learn about issues as diverse as animal health and welfare as well as food safety.  A volunteer for animal rights, she said she was “particularly interested in helping stray animals.”

The Summer College courses served to give the students a taste of veterinary medicine and animal husbandry education that they would not normally be exposed to in Hong Kong.  For example, the students were asked to complete surveys at the conclusion of the course, and one wrote, “Although I have seen cows being milked before, today was more than just milking. I was able to witness two newborn cows and the system of the Cornell Research Farm … The facilities are great and I saw the cows are in no stress with plenty of water and feed.”  When asked for their biggest “wow” moments, student responses ranged from “[touching] a horse” to “listening to a dog’s heartbeat” to “first [receiving] the grade notes.”  These responses indicated the novelty of the subject matter to the students as well as the value in sponsoring such a collaboration.

In addition to providing the students with novel animal and veterinary exposure, the goal of the scholarship program was to foster an interest in veterinary education in high-achieving high school students who would be eligible to apply for admittance into the BVM program that will be launched next fall. This is a 6 year program that results in a degree that is equivalent to a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) in the United States. Graduates of the program will ideally fill much-needed niches in Hong Kong to supervise food safety and apply a One Health perspective to improve both animal and human health in the region and globally. After completion of the program, the majority of students said that they were interested in pursuing careers in veterinary medicine and intend to apply to CityU’s BVM program if possible.

This article was written by Nikhita Parandekar De Bernardis, DVM (CVM Class of 2015), International Programs and Special Projects Coordinator at the College of Veterinary Medicine.