With some creative planning and effort on the part of faculty and staff, students in UMES’ Pre-Vet Club were able to gather safely on October 7 for an in-person social event. Club advisor and UMES’ resident veterinarian Dr. Kimberly Braxton arranged for members to enjoy an African safari “outdoor movie night” style.
Braxton with the help of UMES Farm Manager Solomon Kirongo and the Office of Student Engagement’s James Lunnermon II and Dwayne Robinson set up socially distanced, hay bale seating and projected to a Zoom screen on the side of the swine facility on campus. There, a group of students bundled up with blankets to watch in real-time as a guide from the WildEarth Safari led them on an adventure into the African wilderness. The Zoom connection also allowed a separate group of students, faculty and alumni to join in virtually.
“WildEarth Safari gives participants the ability to speak directly to its game rangers as you watch. During the safari, club members asked questions related to animal behavior, their diets and the African wilderness environment,” Braxton said. “Even though our event lasted only two hours, pre-vet students were ready to stay out all night to enjoy observing the wildlife in their natural habitat.” Some of the animals they saw along the unique journey, she said, were elephants, giraffes, cheetahs (one with two cubs) and a lion eating his dinner.
Since the pandemic, Braxton has thought outside the box to continue in her efforts to recruit young people to the profession, one that earned her passion as an undergraduate pursuing a degree in agriculture and animal science at UMES. This past summer when COVID-19 nixed her plans to offer local youth a hands-on veterinary science camp, she instead lent her assistance to a virtual experience for middle school students through a colleague’s STEM Career Prep program in the Baltimore-Washington region.
Braxton brought the presentation to life by incorporating live domestic and farm animals, including a baby goat, and using interactive anatomy models, such as an artificial dog’s leg, to demonstrate how to draw blood.
“As a veterinarian, I have met many individuals with a passion for animals, but as a college-level educator, I understand representation matters and that is what motivates me to inspire these pre-vet students to turn their passion for animals into a career and help increase diversity in the profession of veterinary medicine,” Braxton said.
Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, School of Agricultural & Natural Sciences, 410-621-3850, gcstephens@umes.edu.
