Amberlee Smith: Pursuing Veterinary Medicine in the U.S. Military

How is your veterinary training going?

I’m in my fourth year of vet school at the University of Georgia in Athens. I’ve entered the clinical part of my year, so it’s less of textbooks and text and more real life.

How did you become interested in Anderson University?

I applied to different schools and Anderson was kind of lower on the list in terms of what I was interested in. The other schools had pre vet tracks, and with Anderson I was thinking, “well, if I don’t get into vet school then maybe I’ll come here for missions work.” I like different languages. I like different countries, and so it was kind of my backup career plan potentially.

I came to the orientation and got to your science department. I knew you had a good nursing program; a couple of my friends had gone there and got degrees in nursing. On your promotional video there was a story about a student who was pre-veterinary, talking about his experience. I was thinking, “Interesting,” so I ended up changing what tour group I went with based on that. I thought, “Maybe I want to check out the science department.” The more I went on my tour they kept mentioning vet medicine and I thought, “This is a good place to go for this.”

How did you become interested in veterinary medicine?

I grew up with animals. I really loved animals. One of my neighbors mentioned one time off-handedly that I would make a good vet. I ended up going to shadow at one of my local veterinarians in South Carolina just to see “can you handle surgery? Is blood going to affect you too much?” I thought this is what I want to do as a career.

What are some favorite memories of going to Anderson University?

I really enjoyed the more close-knit nature of it. My current class size (at vet school) is 150 students. I might know a couple of professors, a couple of them know my name, but we don’t really know each other personally. At Anderson I got more personalized contact with my professors. Still to this day I’ve asked both Dr. K (Koenigstein) and Dr. Joni Criswell for letters of recommendation, especially when I was applying for Army scholarships. They are people who know me personally that can also attest to my work ethic, or even just recommendations for something like this. I enjoyed knowing the professors on a first name basis for sure.

How did you become interested in becoming a military veterinarian?

I’m on a scholarship with the Army called Health Professions Scholarship. For veterinary students they’ll pay for three years of tuition in addition to giving you a housing stipend, then I owe them a three-year active duty service time. After I graduate, I’ll be going to one of the Army bases for an internship year and then three more years of active duty with them in different areas of veterinary medicine in their Veterinary Corps.

What appeals to you the most about doing veterinary work in a military setting?

I like the concept of being able to help with the working dogs and the work they do. I just got off an externship where I went to the main center where all of the working dogs come in that they’ve purchased. They train them and then they send them out to their units. Coming off of that, understanding the fact that people are betting their lives and the security of others on these dogs’ performances. I’s my job to ensure that they are not only in good health, but anaged well and able to perform their jobs so they can save lives.

How was the transition from Anderson University to vet school?

I feel like I was very well prepared. Even conversations I had with my professors—they liken vet school to drinking from a fire hose. It was quite true, but I ended up doing very well in a lot of my basic classes such as immunology or physiology courses, just because I had great instructors.

Why do you think Anderson University would be a good choice for someone considering veterinary school?

Going back to the smallness of the class size and the willingness of the professors, any time I found I had sticking points, there was really good accessibility just to get in with a professor and go over different problems that you’re having, where exactly you need to focus and what exactly you need to do. Then just the range of different experiences, even if you’re not sure what type of medical thing you want to do.

I kind of knew I wanted to go into veterinary medicine. Dr. K (Koenigstein) was able to walk me through and say “Hey, you’re on track, you’re where you need to be.”

Do military vets work with other animals besides dogs?

There are horses as well for cavalry. There’s lab animal research and that kind of stuff. They’ll do overseas medical missions. They will work with allied countries coming to them asking, “How do we best support your livestock, your livelihood? What problems are you having and how can we help solve them with the resources we have?”

What advice would you give someone who is considering going into veterinary medicine?

I would say get out there and get some good experience with local veterinarians. It’s a lot of work and dedication, but there’s a significant payoff. If you really love what you do and you really enjoy working with animals and being able to provide the best care you can, it’s worth the effort you’ve got to go through. Just get out there and see how you like it and keep going. We need dedicated people.

How are your clinicals going?

Currently I am in fourth year of vet school and another four years on top of undergrad, so it’s a doctorate degree essentially. I’m at that final year. We move from classwork to clinicals. I have patients. I’m working under already licensed doctors. We’re working together.

A doctor comes behind me and they examine the patient.

“What do you see? What do you think is going on?”

They’re drilling into your head of what to look out for and what to be aware of.

The transition can be a little scary, some of the hours a little crazy, but overall it’s a great experience. Today I ran anesthesia on a snake. You get into all you can and absorb as much as you can.