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THE LOBSTER INSTITUTE
The Department of Animal and
Veterinary Sciences interfaces with the Lobster Institute in a variety of
ways. Each year several students work on lobster related projects as part
of Dr. Stokes’ senior topics class working on a wide array of projects that
have included, lobster health assessments, feed attractant and bait
evaluation, behavior, and stress measurement.
Currently, Julie Kaye, an AVS
teaching assistant, is completing a Masters degree using GIS to evaluate
environmental toxin maps as they relate to clusters of lobster shell
disease.
One of the goals of the Lobster
Institute is to develop endowed scholarships for graduate and undergraduate
students, giving them opportunities to participate in problem solving
research. We hope that AVS will follow a parallel course in endowing
research and teaching activities with livestock and dairy.
The
Lobster Institute has learned that University and Experiment Station funding
are most inadequate to do the work that needs to be done now. In addition,
grant funding is not as dependable and timely as situations often warrant,
especially in the area of lobster health. Alumni, friends, and industry are
all welcomed to support the C.O.R.E. (Conservation, Outreach, Research, and
Education) campaign to endow the Lobster Institute, to make sure there is a
consistently accessible source of revenue that ensures that the Lobster
Institute is always available as a resource for those in the lobster
industry. To-date, the Lobster Institute has raised over $1,000,000 as
part of its C.O.R.E. Campaign.
FROM PRE-VET TO VET SCHOOL
There is a Land-Grant university in
every state thanks to the Morrill act of 1862. Each of those institutions
has some type of animal science department although the actual names vary
widely. All of those departments probably have some type of pre-vet or
pre-professional curriculum. Biology programs can also have pre-vet or
pre-med concentrations and students from any degree program can be admitted
to vet school if they have received good grades in the required courses and
meet the other admission requirements. It is thus possible for someone from
an art history program to be admitted to vet school. A few years ago the
associate dean for admission from UPenn vet school told us that about 30
percent of all applicants are from animal science programs, 40 percent are
from biological science programs, and the rest come from other degree
programs.
In the 80’s and 90’s we had 80-90
majors in AVS and one or two students were admitted to vet school each
year. When our new students arrive in September we will have almost 180 AVS
majors. As our enrollment has increased, so have the number of our students
admitted to vet school, being about 35% of our graduating seniors in each of
the last two years. This is a large percentage for a state without a vet
school. There is a national shortage of large animal vets, so our students
clearly have an advantage having completed classes that involve hands-on
activities with production animals.
We were interested to know how our
students fare when they make it to vet school, so I contacted three of our
recent grads who are now studying at Cornell (Anne Wiley and Meghan
Flannagan) and at Ross University in the Caribbean (Martha Hart). Martha
and Meghan were also able to visit us last semester and spoke to our Senior
Topics II class.
Martha pointed out that studying at
Ross University on the island of St. Kitts involves both the academic
challenge of vet school and the need to adapt to living in a third world
country. This involves only grocery shopping on Thursday or Friday after
the supply ships have delivered the food. Everything on the island is much
slower paced, which is a severe contrast to the fast pace of vet school.
Martha is very satisfied with the education she is receiving at Ross. “The
lecture curriculum is excellent. The professors use lecture, video and
audio, lab, and demonstrations to accentuate their teaching and further our
learning. We have small and large animal cadavers for Anatomy I and II and
the amount of hands-on labs and experience that we have are incredible. We
also perform surgeries before going to our clinical rotation including small
animal surgery on live dogs and large animal surgery on live donkeys.”
Martha felt that her undergraduate
education prepared her for vet school pretty well, except for anatomy, which
she found very hard after taking a year off from studying. She recommends
that “anyone considering going to vet school get as much clinical experience
as you can before you go.”
Anne Wyllie, said that the UMaine
curriculum was a great starting place and that the cow experience really
helped with the large animal labs. She felt prepared for her classes and
that “UMaine did a very good job preparing me for vet school” but “I wish I
had taken more cell biology classes.”
Meghan Flannagan also felt that she
was very prepared for vet school and she too struggled with the cell biology
course, particularly the section on cell signaling. Anne said that “the
faculty are very friendly and most are willing to help with any questions we
have.” Meghan however, felt that the neuro-anatomy class was a bit of a
struggle for everyone, “more due to the horrible professor than to the
actual material or lack of background.”
All of our grads are clearly loving
the challenges of vet school and feel that we prepared them well for those
challenges.
MAY GRADUATES
Congratulations to our May
graduates, many of whom will be continuing their education at a graduate
school or have plans to do that soon. We wish all of them the very best in
their future careers. Here is a little information about some of them.
Ashley Adams
Ashley was our student farm
manager this year and graduated cum laude in our pre-veterinary
concentration. She was admitted to Atlantic Veterinary College but chose
not to accept that offer. Instead she is moving to Colorado and will apply
to CSU when she has Colorado residency.
Kelly Brooks
Kelly graduated but still needs
some classes to complete the pre-veterinary concentration for admission to
vet school. She plans on taking these classes while she searches for a job
with large or companion animals.
Ashley Bryant
Ashley hopes to apply to vet
school this fall while she is working from July through December in the
Kentucky Equine Management Internship.
Kari Canfield
Kari also needs a few credits to
complete the pre-vet concentration so she hopes to take these classes while
she works at a mixed practice veterinary hospital in New Hampshire.
Nichole Duchesneau
Nichole will move back to
Cumberland, Maine and will work at Androscoggin Animal Hospital in Topsham.
She wants to gain a little more experience and take a few more classes
before she applies to vet school. She said that whatever happens,
veterinary medicine will always be her focus.
Melanie Enos
Melanie graduated cum laude
from our pre-vet concentration. She intends to take the next year working
at a vet clinic to get more experience before applying to vet school. She
is considering moving to a state with a vet school to improve her chances of
admission.
Kenneth Hoyt, Jr
Ken graduated from the Animal
Science concentration. In addition to operating his family farm he will be
working at IDEXX labs in their Production Livestock Research and Development
section. Ken interned with IDEXX last summer and hopes to go to grad school
in Animal Science. Ken lost his father earlier this summer and we offer him
our sincere condolences.
Jennifer Johnston
Jen graduated summa cum laude
from our pre-vet concentration with the third highest GPA of our seniors.
She will be attending vet school at the University of Minnesota this fall.
Anthony Levesque
Tony still needs one class to
complete the Animal Science concentration so he will work in security at
EMMC while he picks up those credits. He will then apply at Old Town and
Veazie Police Departments. He hopes to eventually work in the State Police
K9 units.
Thomas Lund
Tom completed our pre-vet
concentration but has not yet applied to vet school. He is a white water
rafting guide in Alaska this summer and will apply to vet school for January
2008.
Holly Miller
Holly completed our pre-vet
concentration and will take the state technicians test to become a licensed
Veterinary Technician. She will then work at Turner Veterinary Hospital.
Irving Minott, IV
CJ will move to Colorado and work
with exotic animals to gain more experience before applying to the College
of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University.
Stephanie Moriarity
Steph will complete the pre-vet
concentration while she continues to work at the Bangor Humane Society. She
then hopes to be admitted to Ross Veterinary School on St. Kitts in the
Caribbean.
Elizabeth Morse
Liz received our Outstanding Senior
Award for having the highest GPA and graduated summa cum laude from
the pre-vet concentration. This summer she will be an intern at CRES
Wildlife Diseases Laboratory of the San Diego Zoological Society in
Escondido, CA. She will then continue her studies at the Ontario Veterinary
College, University of Guelph, Canada.
Jo-Anna Murphy
Jo-Anna graduated from our pre-vet
concentration, will get married on September 15th, and will work at the
Brewer Veterinary Clinic before beginning an MS degree here with Dr. Weber.
Jennianne O’Connor
Jen will be working as a surgical
technician at Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston while she completes the
pre-vet concentration. She intends to apply to vet school for admission in
fall 2008.
Shelby Stevens
Shelby had the second highest GPA in
the pre-vet concentration and graduated summa cum laude. She hopes
to attend medical school at UVM this fall and until then she will work in a
medically related field in western Maine.
Curt Yannone
Curt graduated from our pre-vet
concentration and will spend the next year adding to his small animal
experience. He hopes to establish residency in either Iowa or Kansas before
applying to vet school.
Of the 20 students in Senior Topics
last year, 3 were admitted to vet school, one is on a waiting list for
medical school, two have applied for graduate school in Animal Sciences, and
nine more will apply this year. Two mature students (Colrain Balch and Greg
Closter) who were only taking the vet school pre-reqs were also admitted, as
was Matt Rolleston, who completed his double major in AVS and Chemistry this
year. Erin Kinney, a Marine Sciences major who was active in our equine
program was also admitted. Congratulations to you all. Come back and
visit us sometime!
Congratulations also to:
Maggie Vandenburg, BS
2000, graduated with the 2006 class from Atlantic Veterinary College (PEI).
Maggie also received the American Association of Feline Practitioners
Student Award.
Dr. Harouna Maiga, MS
1986, received the University of Minnesota, Cookston, Distinguished Faculty
Award in recognition of his teaching.
Dr. Richard Crawford,
PhD 1978, a professor at the University of Missouri, received the Rural
Community Development Award from the Missouri Farmers Union
OBITUARY
It is with great regret that we
announce the passing of:
James W. Mitchell,
1942-2007. Jim supervised the poultry research on campus for many years
before taking over management of the Witter and Rogers farms. He retired in
1996 after 33 years of service to the university and will be missed by us
all.
ALUMNI
CORNER
A considerable number of our alumni
contacted us since the last newsletter. Here is news about a few of them:
Christa Currier Galipeau,
BS 1996. After graduation, Christa returned to Presque Isle, did her
student teaching, became a Maine State Certified teacher for secondary
education, and married Scott Galipeau. After having various jobs she became
an agriscience teacher in 2001 at the Presque Isle Regional Career and
Technical Center where she taught a range of bioresource classes. In
January 2004 she gave birth to Piper and Sierra and since 2006 has run her
own private tutoring business from her home so she can still work but be
close to her two daughters. She wrote, “I think about you all at the
university often. I learned so many valuable things and had such fun doing
it. (obi_wan1@verizon.net)
Sarah Guilmain, MS
2004. After working with primates at NIH in Washington, DC Sarah moved to
the University of Florida where she will begin the second year of a PhD
program with Dr. Southwick on the actin cytoskeleton and the effects of
anthrax. She is engaged and will be getting married in October 2008. (sguilmai@ufl.edu)
Sheila Sweeney Bornstein,
BS 2000, MS Cornell, 2003, Reproductive Physiology. Sheila has just
completed her third year at the Jackson Lab as a research assistant/project
manager for the reproductive mutagenesis research of Dr. Mary Ann Handel and
Dr. John Epig. She married her long time love Jacob at the Lucerne Inn in
the summer of 2006 so “life is pretty good.” She would love to hear from
any 2000 alumni. “Where have you all gone?” (sheila.bornstein@jax.org)
Kiera Finucane, BS
2004, MS UVM 2006, is now the Coordinator of Dairy and Beef Extension
programs at the University of Maryland.
Kathy Wormwood Rogers,
BS 1999. After graduation, Kathy was a certified mental health professional
for the state, teaching in Northport, before becoming a certified
therapeutic riding instructor teaching at Freedom Riders in Union. She also
taught able bodied riders, trained horses, and judged open and schooling
shows. She married Eric Rogers in August 2000 and they have two boys,
Lucius, age 2 years and Aidric, 8 months. She no longer teaches school but
“still does all the horse stuff!” (mayflower_farm@yahoo.com)
Linda Scibilia, BS
1982, and her partner have moved back to New York. She still works for Ford
Motor Company and is the Plant Controller of the Buffalo Stamping Plant.
They plan to eventually move back to central New York to build a boarding
kennel and agility training center. They own six horses and board three
more, have six dogs and numerous cats. Due to the move they have taken a
temporary break from raising Leader Dogs for the Blind, but hope to restart
that in the near future. (coyotecrossing@peoplepc.com)
Sophia Albert, BS
2003. The “cheetah girl” made another trip back to Namibia after graduation
but is now back in Otter Creek while she searches for opportunities with big
cats in the US. Does anyone have any leads? She can be contacted at 3
Richardson Avenue, Otter Creek, ME 04660. (Sophia.albert@gamail.com)
Matthew Wright, BS
1988, PhD Northwestern 1994, Molecular Biology, post-doctoral research in
vascular biology and atherosclerotic disease at the University of
Washington, Seattle. Matthew has worked for Roche pharmaceuticals in Basel,
Switzerland in drug discovery research. “The Maine Animal Club, Orono
Royal, and a workstudy job at the Witter Center were some of the highlights
of a very special four years at Maine.” (mbw99@bluewin.ch)
PLEASE
HELP US
Are you an AVS grad
who went on to grad school, vet school, med school? We want to recognize
the achievements of our graduates in a display at Witter and on our AVS
display that we use at Open Houses and take to fairs, such as Fryeburg or
Bangor. If you went on to post-graduate studies in any program after you
left Maine, then please let us know. Please contact us with all the
necessary dates, degrees, locations, topics, your name, and any name change,
etc. and your current position.
(www.umaine.edu/animlvet/
or
stokes@maine.edu) |
