Hands-on veterinary experience

Internships provide valuable real-world experience for University of Delaware students as they explore their chosen career fields. For pre-veterinary medicine majors, these internships (or externships, as they are sometimes known) are essential veterinary work experiences in the competitive path to veterinary school.

To get this experience, it's good to have other Blue Hens watching out for you. Alumni from UD's animal science and pre-veterinary medicine majors have a long legacy of hiring UD student-interns in their clinics and research facilities. Many see it as a way to give back to the Blue Hen community.

These alumni are folks like Patrick Carroll, the chief executive officer of Humane Animal Partners and a UD Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR).

"I'm very grateful to UD. My time at the CANR was a wonderful experience," said Carroll, who graduated from UD in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in animal science. "I have a natural affiliation with the college."

Alumni-hosted internships are popular with students.

"We receive more applications than we can accept," said Lesa Griffiths, professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences.

Griffiths facilitates two long-running internship programs. Alumni at Humane Animal Partners (HAP) and Penn Vet Swine Teaching & Research Center host approximately 10 interns annually.

"These alumni-initiated programs are providing so many opportunities for our students," Griffiths said.