RELEASED: April 8, 2004

DANVILLE, KY—Centre sophomore Heidi Lampela is getting a small taste of what it might feel like to be the animal physician Dr. Doolittle.

Lampela, a sophomore biology major from Collierville, Tenn., might not be able to hear her patients’ complaints, but she’s learning how to help animals and their owners.

Lampela is spending the spring term interning with Dr. Beth Johnson, veterinarian at All Creatures Vet Clinic in Stanford, Ky. Lampela, who landed the internship with the help of Career Services at Centre, works with the veterinarian three times a week.

“It’s amazing,” Lampela says. “The one thing I’ve taken from it is how much you can learn from experience. [This internship] has taught me a ton about the profession. I feel extremely lucky because I’m getting a world of insight before I even enter vet school. I feel like I’m getting a book shipped to me with all the secrets.”

Twice a week, Lampela and Johnson do farm calls and work with animals such as cows, goats, horses, sheep and pigs.

“I’ve never been around large animals,” Lampela says. “You can learn in books, but you can’t really know until you’ve been around them.”

One day a week, they work with smaller animals, which are house pets in most cases. Through her experience with both large and small animals, Lampela is learning why veterinary work is so important to animal owners.

“With smaller animals it’s more of an emotional commitment, whereas with the large animals it’s [the owners’] business,” she says.

Lampela says this experience has reinforced her plans to go to veterinary school.

“Working with Dr. Johnson has been wonderful. She has a family and two kids and she balances it. It really confirmed in my head that this is what I want to do.”

For more on Career Services at Centre, go to http://web.centre.edu/careerd/.

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