Spring Break and SAVMA Symposium

 This year, the SAVMA Symposium was held at UC Davis, SVM. Although it was over my spring break and I wasn't too excited about sitting in our lecture halls to hear symposium lectures, it was a wonderful experience. UC Davis will not host the symposium for a great number of years as the host college rotates yearly. The people who planned the symposium did a wonderful job and worked really hard to put on such a great event. Mother nature did not participate in symposium festivities although she was made herself present. I think everyone who came to the "California Dreamin" Symposium expected sunny California weather, however, it was raining almost the entire time! Not only raining, but windy and just typical CA weather that often comes and goes during the winter/early spring. 

I enjoyed meeting students from all over the country and globe. We had many international students come from Holland, Turkey, England, Ireland, Spain, Serbia, Australia, and many other countries. I even had the opportunity to host an international student from Turkey. He was in his first year of veterinary school (which is 6 years total in Turkey) because it includes your undergraduate education as well as the professional veterinary education.

I was lucky enough to be selected for a wet lab: equine lameness and nerve blocks. It was a wonderful experience and I got to administer two nerve blocks. I think my favorite part was the review of the distal equine limb anatomy. And to top the experience off, our group's horse was very sweet and willing to let us learn on him. He was also a great candidate for the wet lab since he had a bilateral forelimb lameness. 

The evening events were a lot of fun and were very impressively put on. The first night was supposed to be kickball at Raley Field (the Sacramento River Cat's baseball stadium), however, the weather didn't play nice, so they still had us go to the stadium for ball park grub and beer tasting. We also danced the night away to a live band called Bog Spavin. The second evening event was 80's night at Freeborn Hall followed by a bar crawl. The third evening event was wine, appetizers, art, and dessert at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. 

Although my spring break really feels like it never happened, I did really enjoy the symposium and all the memories that will stay with me forever. All the wonderful people I met will always remain close and I wish them all success in their veterinary education and profession. There will never be another chance during my time in veterinary school that the symposium will be held and hosted by UC Davis.
 

SAVMA Website (Student American Veterinary Medical Association) 

Symposium Website for 2011