While growing up in China, students Yifan Chen, Jingjing Ding, Earelda Jiang, and Qian Liu were all inspired by different reasons to pursue a career in veterinary medicine.
Jiang has always loved animals but hadn't considered veterinary medicine as a career path until she was exposed to the industry in college. Stories of cases relayed by her undergraduate roommate studying the field inspired Liu to switch majors from design. Chen is following in the footsteps of her parents and grandparents, who also studied veterinary medicine and took nonclinical jobs in the field.
For Ding, it was witnessing the 2018 outbreak of African swine fever ravage the Chinese pork industry and its impact hitting close to home for her family.
“My grandfather raised pigs in the countryside, and unfortunately, his entire herd became infected and had to be culled due to biosecurity protocols,” she says. “This experience made me realize the devastating impact of the disease on both the economy and people’s livelihoods. These events inspired me to pursue preventive veterinary medicine as my graduate major, as I wanted to contribute to solving this problem.”
Previously, their paths have varied, but these students’ pursuit of a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) brought them all to the same place: the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). The college is a partner of the U.S.–China Joint DVM Scholarship Program administered through Kansas State University’s (KSU) U.S.-China Center for Animal Health.
Established in 2012, the scholarship program facilitates collaboration among universities, government, and animal health industry partners in China and the U.S. with the mission of training future leaders for veterinary education and the veterinary profession in China.
