Help Host an International Student Exchange!

On behalf of the SAVMA International Veterinary Exchange Committee, we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in a national contest. Currently, the International Veterinary Exchange Committee is trying to update its database of potential U.S. Veterinarian Hosts – those veterinarians who would be interested in hosting an international veterinary student at their clinic.

We would like to involve all schools and IVSA Chapters in increasing the database for the Host Program

and are offering two monetary gifts for the individual student and overall IVSA Chapter (if there is no

current IVSA Chapter funds at the winning school, the SCAVMA Chapter will be awarded the funds) who

provide the most names of potential Host Veterinarians. The individual student who obtains the most

veterinarians for the database will receive a $125 scholarship and the overall IVSA chapter that provides

the most veterinarians to the database will receive a $125 scholarship.

As your fellow students prepare for internships, externships, and mentorships, it would be a perfect

time to encourage all members of IVSA chapters, along with the general student body, to invite

veterinarians to participate in the Host Program.

The process is easy! Contact your SAVMA delegate for more information and to get the forms to provide to interested veterinarians. Those interested veterinarians should fill out the forms completely and send

them back to the International Exchange Officer by email, fax or post.

All names are due to the International Exchange Officer and even though names will be continuously

added to the Host List, the contest will cease on July 1, 2011.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the International Veterinary Exchange Committee

or the International Exchange Officer. You can find more information at http://www.avma.org/savma/ieo/get-involved.asp.

Where are you headed this summer?

Why not Denmark? Join veterinary students from around the world at the 59th Annual International Veterinary Student Association's Summer Congress in Copenhagen. BUT--Registration closes at the end of this month! So, get your application in by March 30th if you want to get in on this wonderful opportunity. More information and the application can be found at: http://www.ivsadenmark.dk/

Contact SAVMA's International Exchange Officer, Deirdre Murdy for more info at SAVMAIEO@gmail.com

Symposium Update, part 2

The second day of the SAVMA House of Delegates is flying by and it's hard to believe we're almost finished with our meeting! Today we held the elections for our new officer positions and the future site of SAVMA Symposium 2012. The winners are: Joe Esch for President-elect, Rayne Johnson for International Exchange Officer-elect and Claire McPhee for Global and Public Health Officer-elect. Congratulations to these guys. I know they are going to be good additions to the SAVMA Executive Committee.

The winner of the 2012 SAVMA Symposium bid was....

On the international front, please check out the opportunities available to SAVMA Students at the 59th Annual IVSA Congress. The International Veterinary Student Association will be hosting the Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark this year from July 8-18th, 2010. All SAVMA members are eligible to attend this congress and it's a great way to get to know students from all around the world. Registration is open until March 31, 2010, so hurry up and register! More information can be found at www.ivsadenmark.dk

International Exchange Hosts Needed!

Do you know a vet that would host an international student at their clinic? Do you know more than one? Do you like cash? Then keep on reading!

The International Veterinary Exchange Committee (IVEC) is holding a contest for recruiting the most IVSA exchange host veterinarians. The deadline is March 1, and the winning individual will receive $50 and the winning IVSA chapter receives $200! This is part of an effort by the IVEC to increase the number of veterinarians in the US that are willing to host international students at their practice for a 2-4 week exchange. If you have worked with any veterinarians that might be interested, please encourage them to become IVSA exchange hosts, even after the contest is over! IVSA exchange host forms are available on the SAVMA IVSA website (www.avma.org/savma/ieo/) and please send completed forms to Virginia Kiefer at SAVMAIEO@gmail.com

Heading to SAVMA Symposium?

If you're making the trip to Madison next month for SAVMA Symposium, please consider these opportunities for helping veterinary students around the world. The International Veterinary Student Association's Development Fund will be collecting donations of basic sciences veterinary textbooks and will also hold an auction.

The Development Fund is managed by the IVSA to aid disadvantaged veterinary faculties throughout the world. This year they are providing aid to Moldova, Mozambique, Colombia, and Ghana. It is one of the most rewarding aspects of the IVSA where real benefits can be seen for each project that not only help the students and faculty at the veterinary schools, but the animals they treat as well. You can help in two ways at SAVMA Symposium 2010:

1) The Development Fund Book Drive

IVSA will be collecting literature donations at the SAVMA Symposium this year to provide these faculties. They will be collected at the conference center and shipped to the IVSA headquarters to be distributed. Please bring any veterinary and basic science (physiology, pharmacology, etc) text books you are not using to donate to these developing schools.

I know I plan on unloading some of my textbooks from first year that are just collecting dust on the shelves (that's you, Immunology....start saying farewell to the others.)

2)  The Development Fund Auction

All kinds of items will be up for auction such as digital thermometers, surgical kit items, veterinary clothing (always popular!), stethoscopes, books, and a few other surprise items. You can also help with the auction by donating some (new) items of your own. The procedes go directly to the IVSA DF.

To find out more about SAVMA Symposium itself, just click the link to your right to go to their site.