LINK is a 3 week internship program that Animas High School has all juniors do. It is the last couple of weeks in April and goes into the first week of May. Since Animas High School is a college prep school whats a better way to get us prepared for the outside world? The students get to choose what they want to do and where they want to go, (you can even leave town) we also have to set it up for ourselves! Over the course of the 3 weeks each student has to discuss a project with there mentor. The project gives students a way to dig deeper into a topic they are interest in that is related to what they are doing.
Jeff Warren owns Southwest Veterinary Services, he is also the only one that works there. He is a mobile large animal vet. He does everything with cows and horses. Surgeries, vaccinations, health checks, help with calving/foaling, AI, ultrasounds, etc! Even though he is a large animal vet he will look at small animals and help if he can, if he can't help he will refer you to a small animal vet. (When he first started being a vet he did small animals)
LINK Anticipation
When we first started talking about LINK I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was trying to think of a bunch of different jobs that I was interested in doing or being. But none really came to mind, so I decided to do my childhood dream job which was being a vet! I thought about going out of town to do my internship at an all animal vet, and being a vet tech there. The more I thought about it and the more I talked to my parents I didn't like that idea so much anymore. That's when Jeff came to mind. My family has known Jeff for over 20 years, and know that he is an amazing vet. And if I was going to get experience being a vet Jeff would be perfect, and I wouldn't just stand around watching, I would do the work with him or for him! I decided to give him a call and see if he would be willing to be my mentor. At first, I didn't think he would say yes because he's been on his own since he first started. Which has been almost 30 years! He said he would be willing to do it, but it wouldn’t be every day it would just be a couple of days a week. Little did we know I would be with him every day for 8+ hours! What I wanted to get out of the internship was to see if I really wanted to be a vet or whatever else I chose to do. I didn't just want to do an internship because it sounded fun or easy. I wanted to use it to my advantage to help plan my future. I went into my internship with an open mind about the whole experience. I really wanted to find out if I should pursue my childhood dream job or find another dream job. Even though some days it was pouring rain and cold, or we started at 6 in the morning and did a 12 hour day. I found that this is what I want to do!! Jeff is the only cattle vet standing in Durango. Going to do cows for people or even just horses I could see the hope in peoples eyes of being a possible all animal vet, and learning from the best vet out there. Gave me a reason and drive to be a vet.
LINK Project
LINK Reflection
Growing up on a ranch with animals and helping/watching my parents work and doctor cows and horses, and also watching and listening to Jeff when I was younger helped me a lot! I was able to go into my LINK with some knowledge of what some things were and how to do some things. Instead of going in completely clueless. I also asked a lot of questions, when he would tell me we are going to do this, I would ask what does that do or how do we do that. During my LINK I learned how to be able to talk to all different kinds of people and be able to “connect” with them through there animals, I learned how to be patient with animals that would “corporate” with us, instead of getting frustrated I learned how to calmly wait for the animal to calm down. I also learned different ways to calm a horse when trying to give it a shot, or trying to look at its eyes. I didn't have too many challenges through my LINK. It was fairly easy and I could understand what was happening. I don't really know if I had an importance with my mentor. He might be interested in taking on more high school interns in the future because he really enjoyed having my help. It made the day go by faster and was a lot easier for him. My experience during my internship was amazing! I learned a lot and was able to interact and help with everything we did. It really helped me decide that being a vet is something I want to do. Even though it is extremely challenging, years of school, and very difficult to get into vet school. I want to work very hard to get into a school. Most of the classes I want to take next year will go towards vet medicine and start researching vet schools and see which one I want to go to, and what they look for in students.