The Texas Tech University Veterinary School of Medicine welcomed its inaugural class on August 18, 2021. Now, five years later, the school’s first wave of veterinarians are already working to fill a shortage in Texas’ rural animal care.
There had been conversations about opening a veterinary school with Texas Tech for years. Each time, they did not get enough funding, or it would be put on the back burner. In 2015, the conversation turned more serious, and decisions started to be made.
A big decision that was made during this time was where to locate the school; the choice was Amarillo.
Guy Loneragan, the Dean of the vet school now, was one of those few people that was helping decide these details.
“We're very proud to be here in Amarillo," Loneragan said. "We think it's the center of the universe. The Panhandle is a great place to be.”
Those few people starting the vet school also had to focus on the purpose. They wanted to send their veterinary school graduates to the rural communities of Texas. To achieve this, they only accepted applications from Texas residents, and a few from New Mexico.
“What we do, and what we're solely focused on, is how we serve the veterinary needs of rural and regional communities, and provide access to world-class, affordable education,” Loneragan said.
The school has seen its purpose come true in the number of its students returning to rural practices.
“More than 90% start their career in rural and regional practices," Loneragan said. "And if you look at the combined large animal predominant or mixed animal practices, it's around 73% of our graduates start their career in that where the national average is 12, so our strategies really have changed the narrative around what can be done to address a workforce need."
The Texas Tech Vet School admits 100 students per class. Their job of choosing these students is getting harder and harder, though. According to Dean Loneragan, there are 11 applicants per spot. There is a multi-step application process, ending with interviews. They usually interview 200 applicants, then break it down to those 100 students.
When applying to the vet school, they look at GPA and resumes, but that is not the major detail they focus on.
Ashleigh Granda was in the inaugural Texas Tech School of Veterinary class and is now working at Live Oak Animal Hospital in Lubbock.
“They want to know who you are as a person, what you've worked, who you've worked with, your capabilities and your experiences out on the field," Granda said. "That's what they care about because that's what makes a good practitioner.”
Once admitted, students go through three years of classes and labs at the school.
Research is a large focus for students during their time at the Texas Tech Vet School, with the school’s research expenditures reaching $5-6 million. They have analyzed topics including parasitology, comparative cancer, comparative nutrition and nutritional immunology.
According to Texas Tech Veterinary School of Medicine, one of their professors collects cancer cells that have been surgically removed from animals for her and students to research. They can study these cells and get answers about all aspects, like what causes it and how they can treat it.
During the students' time in Amarillo, the vet school is very involved with the community around them. They put on a veterinary summer camp, the students lead an angel tree giving program during the holidays, and they help with Transformation Park in Amarillo, where they provide care to the pets of people experiencing homelessness.
The faculty also raised over $8,000 last year for St. Baldric’s Cure for Cancer. They are being recognized in a few weeks for the Texans Caring for Texans award.
Once the vet students have completed their three years of schooling, they enter their clinical year. The clinical year is a 52-week program with four-week blocks. The students spend those four weeks at different veterinary practices learning from the veterinarians at these offices. The school has about 180 clinical partners spanning from Texas, New Mexico, to Oklahoma, and even into Southwest Kansas.
Britt Conklin is the associate dean for clinical programs at the vet school. He explained the benefits of the clinical year.
“When they move over and take a job, they're used to the pace. They're used to the client interaction," Conklin said. "They understand now, different scenarios based on different patients.”
Once the students graduate from the veterinary school, most do not have trouble finding jobs.
Dean Loneragan explained, “More than nine out of 10 of our students have signed the contract of where they're going at some point in their final year.”
After being in the program, Ashleigh Granda explains that being in West Texas, a lot of animal owners are not able to receive the care they need because the closest big practices are in other states or Dallas. As a Texas Tech vet school graduate, she says she now feels like she has a network of support among other rural veterinarians'
“We're able to meet people in these rural places with higher quality medicine that they might only have been able to get if they were to be referred out to a specialist and pay specialist prices,” Granda said.
Dean Loneragan’s goal is for veterinarians from the school to continue meeting the needs of rural Texans in the future.
“We started in response to a community need, to a professional need," Loneragan said. "And now that we're here and growing, we see that these needs and opportunities are far greater and far more exciting than we had ever thought.”