Editor’s Observe: The Particular Species Symposium is a three-day occasion hosted by Cornell College Faculty of Veterinary Medication’s Zoo and Wildlife Society (ZAWS) biannually. The weekend-long symposium consists of lectures and labs targeted on wildlife conservation, One Well being, aquatic, and zoological drugs. The occasion attracts a whole bunch of scholars, veterinarians, and animal well being professionals and provides intensive networking and studying alternatives.
Second-year DVM pupil Claire Chiang is a co-chair of the 2025 Particular Species Symposium.
Claire Chiang and Katie-Ann Fu are second-year DVM college students serving because the 2025 Particular Species Coordinators. WildLIFE spoke to them about their expertise planning this thrilling occasion.
Registration for the Symposium is open! Go to the 2025 Particular Species Symposium web page to register.
Are you able to inform us a little bit bit about who you might be, your profession targets, and what led you to become involved in ZAWS?
Claire: I’m a second-year veterinary pupil at Cornell all in favour of avian and unique drugs. I’m initially from Monmouth Junction, New Jersey and went to Carnegie Mellon College in Pittsburgh for undergrad. Throughout my time in Pittsburgh, I gained veterinary experiences on the Nationwide Aviary and a small family-run basic follow that noticed principally birds and different unique species. Via these experiences I developed an curiosity in drugs of non-traditional species and took that keenness into veterinary college. ZAWS was a good way for me to fulfill those that have comparable pursuits as me and to even be part of the workforce to coach these on the significance of medication for wildlife and unique species.
Katie-Ann: My identify is Katie-Ann Fu, and I’m from Nice Neck, New York on Lengthy Island. I went to Penn State as an undergrad. After going overseas to Costa Rica to work with their native wildlife and to partake in conservation initiatives, my profession targets lie inside wildlife drugs and pathology. I additionally noticed a whale shark there and completely fell in love! I received concerned with ZAWS not solely due to my curiosity in zoo and wildlife drugs but additionally due to my need to serve the neighborhood by constructing a close-knit workforce and offering alternatives for college students to study extra about this area of veterinary drugs and methods they will become involved.
What precisely is the Particular Species Symposium?
Katie-Ann Fu is a second-year DVM pupil and co-chair of the 2025 Particular Species Symposium.
Claire: Each two years, ZAWS hosts the Particular Species Symposium at Cornell the place we invite veterinary professionals from around the globe to talk and lead moist labs for a main viewers of veterinary college students. Via the symposium, college students are in a position to meet veterinarians which might be profitable in facets not historically seen in veterinary drugs and be impressed to pursue such fields. The symposium is a good way to carry collectively the wildlife and exotics veterinary neighborhood with college students coming from veterinary colleges around the globe.
Katie-Ann: Attendees can discover alternatives to advance the animal, human, and environmental well being interface, and the hands-on moist and dry labs assist present sensible experiences whereas broadening college students’ understanding of profession potentialities in veterinary drugs.
We all know you could have been very busy because the Particular Species Symposium Coordinators! What has it been like planning and making ready for such a big occasion?
Claire: Planning the symposium has been a little bit little bit of organized chaos. There’s something that we have to do daily and one in all our largest challenges was undoubtedly elevating sufficient cash to host our audio system and to have the provides for participating moist labs. I’ve had a lot enjoyable working with Katie-Ann and our subcommittee who’ve helped make the planning for the symposium potential!
Katie-Ann: There have been undoubtedly some difficult moments of feeling overwhelmed whereas making ready for the symposium because of sorting all of the logistics, managing funds, reaching out to sponsors and audio system, and developing with inventive methods to fundraise. This place has opened my eyes to the immense and collaborative efforts required to plan such a grand-scale occasion, but it surely has additionally been very enjoyable and rewarding to see the items coming collectively!
What has been the most effective half about serving as a Particular Species Coordinator?
Claire: One of the best a part of being the Particular Species Coordinator has undoubtedly been the folks I’ve gotten to work with and meet alongside the way in which. Now we have gotten the chance to work with our wonderful audio system, lots of whom will journey lengthy distances to return to our symposium. It’s inspiring to listen to their tales and the eagerness they maintain for instructing our era of veterinary college students. I’ve additionally gotten near these engaged on the symposium collectively.
Katie-Ann: Whereas planning for such a big occasion has been no straightforward feat, it has actually been a blessing. Serving as a Particular Species Coordinator has supplied me with alternatives to develop in methods I had by no means anticipated–from studying how you can fundraise on a big scale to successfully speaking with my workforce, audio system, and lab leaders to fostering creativity, adaptability, and a focus to element. There have been many challenges but additionally many joys, particularly cultivating new and outdated relationships with pre-vet college students, my friends, and professionals within the veterinary area. It has been actually inspiring to witness the thrill among the many college students, audio system, and lab leaders and to acknowledge how this area of veterinary drugs can create an setting the place everybody can develop and study from each other.
What classes have you ever realized engaged on the Particular Species Symposium? Is there something that has shocked you?
Claire: Engaged on the Particular Species Symposium has taught me the quantity of labor and energy that goes into conferences and the necessity for an efficient workforce that’s prepared to work collectively to unravel issues. I used to be shocked as to the amount of cash that goes behind such conferences and the quantity of communication essential to coordinate the variety of audio system and moist labs that we are going to be internet hosting.
Katie-Ann: Because the Particular Species Symposium is such a big occasion, it’s straightforward to really feel overwhelmed and pressured to steer and carry out effectively, finally falling right into a state of burnout. So, speaking with my co-chair, different E-board members, symposium subcommittee, and school in addition to delegating duties has been so necessary in addressing these points. Quite a few intricate particulars and transferring parts can typically be neglected through the planning part. Collaborating as a workforce helps handle this subject by bringing collectively various views and concepts, enabling us to leverage our strengths to offset one another’s weaknesses.
What facet of the Particular Species Symposium are you most trying ahead to?
Claire: I’m most excited for the scholars to have the ability to join with our audio system and for them to have the ability to develop expertise throughout our moist labs which might be arduous to accumulate in any other case. With the ability to meet different college students and veterinary professionals all in favour of non-traditional species will be capable to encourage the subsequent era of veterinarians to make a big impression on the fields of wildlife and unique drugs.
Katie-Ann: I’m very excited to fulfill the audio system and attendees! It’s a pleasure to be a part of a neighborhood so keen about wildlife and particular species, and I’m trying ahead to seeing how the symposium will present a platform for constructing new relationships which will result in future collaborations on the forefront of zoo, wildlife, and conservation drugs.
