Epi. 232 - Creating a Structured Internship Program in Your Practice

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Drs. Al Martens and Nick Mayer from Waupun Veterinary Services in East Central Wisconsin. We are also joined by Katelyn Belding, a third-year student at Iowa State University who participated in a summer internship program at Waupun Veterinary Services.

Our guests discuss the importance of externships for exposing students to cattle practice, providing experiences for them, making connections for future employment opportunities, and is a way for veterinarians to give back to the future generation of cattle veterinarians. We discuss the differences between an externship, which is intended to be a shorter experience, and an internship, which at Waupun Veterinary Services is a longer summer program that provides a stipend for the student. 

Students often face obstacles in gaining these experiences. This can include lack of a network to identify opportunities, financial barriers to participate, and locating housing. Practices that are interested in hosting students should recognize these barriers and work to address them. Our guests also discuss identifying a person in your practice to manage the externship and internship program. Waupun Veterinary Services also provides a pay incentive to veterinarians in the practice when they have students with them to encourage them to take the time to teach the student. It is also advantageous to introduce students to other veterinary opportunities in their community, such as industry and government-employed veterinarians that work with the practice. It is also suggested to have an intern at the practice develop a project, and Belding describes her project that she completed on her internship. 

The AABP Foundation provides funding for students to attend externships. The AABP Foundation also provides externship grants for students enrolled in Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU) through a grant from the Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation. Students interested in attending practices in Wisconsin and are current or potentially future residents of Wisconsin can apply for the Wisconsin Rural Opportunities Fund (WROF) grant. Find all externship grant funding opportunities under the Students menu of the AABP website at https://aabp.org.