01/07/2024
Day 1,376 of grading essays for veterinary student scholarships. J/K - but realistically, it has been about 2 full weeks working my way through nearly 600 pages of essays from 66 students to award nearly $200k in student scholarships. If you didn’t know, I volunteer my time for the foundation portion of my state veterinary association, the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Foundation. The cost of tuition for a veterinary students can be upwards of $400k, yet most salaries for starting veterinarians, especially those going into public health or rural settings, can be quite low. Not all state associations make the same fundraising strides as Minnesota’s. In addition to our numerous fundraising event efforts, many scholarships come from generous donors who gift what they can or even enough to create a lasting legacy in their name for a yearly scholarship. Soon I’ll also have details about our upcoming, well anticipated fundraising event - The Vet Gala, held at the Radison Blue at the MOA. All (veterinary teams AND general public) are welcome to attend this highly talked about event. Also - do you know of someone considering estate planning? If so, please encourage the consideration for planned giving to the MVMF. I truly wish you could all read these inspiring essays - to hear about what each of these students are doing in our community - from working with low income families in the twin cities - to sleeping on gym floors for a week to offer services to our Native American populations up north - to inspiring youth in rural communities. www.MVMFcares.org/you-can-help/