Page 59 - Eclipse - RVC Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

CLASSNOTES
love learning new things every day; and most of all, it is deeply rewarding to be positively impacting the health and welfare of the animals in my care.
It is inspiring to enter
a community and profession that has adapted so seamlessly to the most difficult of times and maintained the same high standards of care to animals.
Finishing at the RVC amidst a pandemic was emotionally demanding and at times, emotionally impossible. However, lockdown was also a unique opportunity to reflect and better prepare myself for life as a vet. I am forever in debt to the RVC for the life changing experience I had as a student.
Any current vet student should know that despite any anxieties you may be experiencing right now, remain resilient and a lifelong and fulfilling career is waiting for you on the other side.
Alex’s work with Vet Mentor
I am so excited to be taking on the role of Chief Mentor for Veterinary at Vet Mentor, alongside my clinical career, and give something back to the next generation
of vets. The RVC is well-represented in Vet Mentor as our President, Sherri-Anne Pegg is also an RVC alumna, who has been fundamental in giving vets their own platform within the organisation.
What is Vet Mentor?
Vet Mentor is the brand-new veterinary- specific branch of the Medic Mentor family. Vet Mentor is a non-profit organisation
for applying veterinary students, university students and qualified vets. We are run by a UK-wide network of volunteer vets and Chief Mentors who provide UCAS support and teach veterinary students how to become successful future vets and leaders in the profession.
As Vet Mentor is part of a wider family that includes Medic Mentor and Dental Mentor, we are also advocates of the one health initiative and triumph in our shared similarities and improve from our inherent differences.
As a veterinary scholar during my time
at the RVC, I had the opportunity to participate in some amazing educational projects, including authoring a Veterinary Interview Skills book and Veterinary
Personal Statement book, editing
a national magazine, presenting at numerous national conferences, and leading on the veterinary summer school.
Since graduating I have taken up the position of Chief Mentor for Veterinary and I am also overseeing educational projects including a hugely successful podcast and YouTube series titled ‘So you want to be
a vet?’, a re-launch of the national Mentor magazine and a bi-monthly virtual ‘Get into Veterinary Medicine’ insight conference.
How to get involved
If you are an outgoing, motivated, and forward-thinking vet looking to try something new, spearhead national educational projects, develop new skills or challenge yourself in the veterinary education sphere, then we would love to hear from you.
The Vet Mentor website will be launched in the coming weeks and you can email president@vetmentorfamily.org to register your interest or
find out more in the meantime.
From Cardiomyopathies to COVID
John Gorzynski, BVetMed 2015
In my final year at the RVC as a vet med student, I decided that my career would include biomedical research, which would require continuing my education by pursuing a PhD.
I wanted to first solidify the knowledge and skills I had been working towards whilst at university by taking a job as a mixed animal surgeon in Powys, Wales. During a long (and wet) lambing season, I prepared my PhD applications and,
by the time the summer came around, I had accepted an offer to study in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. With excitement to take my
next step in this academic journey and to see the California sun, I packed my bags.
I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, home of Silicon Valley, where new ideas, innovation, science, and technology dominate the workforce. This was a drastic change from the small farming community in Wales I had called home for the past year.
I was eager to develop my thesis and inspired to integrate my previous focus on animal health with new biomedical technologies. In line with my deep interest in cardiology, I decided to focus my thesis
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