June 2023

By Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT
Director of Medicine / CEO, VETgirl

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education blog, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT writes a letter to her veterinary classmates at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

A letter to my veterinary classmates

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 26 years since I graduated veterinary school at Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine this summer. Sadly, I wasn’t be able to go to my vet school reunion this summer and missed another one!

The last vet school reunion I went to was over a decade ago, at my 15-year reunion. It was amazing to be back in beautiful Ithaca, NY (Ithaca is Gorges!), and even better to re-connect with some veterinary classmates whom I hadn’t seen in over a decade. We all commented how we looked exactly the same and that not much had changed in life, short of having to “adult” now.

Justine Lee 15 year Cornell Vet school reunion

I’ll admit that I’ve been remiss about staying in touch with my veterinary classmates or going to reunions. (Being based out of Minnesota, it’s hard for me to get back to Ithaca – so many flights to get there!). I’m grateful to see veterinary classmates and fellow alumni occasionally at large veterinary conference class reunions at VMX or WVC.

I wish I could see my classmates more frequently and re-connect with them. In the meantime,  this is what I’d say to them in a letter to my classmates (Go, Class of 1997!)…

VETgirl Diversity Equity Scholarship at Cornell Vet

We survived as the first class of PBL.

We were the first ever class to go through Cornell Vet’s 100% problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. We were the guinea pigs. Cornell’s curriculum went from a 100% lecture- and lab-based to a small, 6-person tutorial PBL system back in 1993, and we were the first to battle through it. To me, we helped fix the “Hugo Young” and “Suzy Stefanski” PBL cases and finals (where your entire 10 credits of anatomy or physiology boiled down to one full day exam). I’m not sure my classmates struggled with this curriculum as much as I did (They seemed like they were rockin’ it!). I found myself too distracted with the cool clinical stuff of these tutorial cases instead of focusing on the mediastinum and the pleural space anatomy. Hence, C = DVM for me. To my poor classmates in my tutor groups that had to walk me off the ledge or deal with my crying (e.g., “We’ll never pass NAVLE!,”) or freaking out, thank you.

I was super immature.

When I reflect back to my veterinary school days, I was really, really immature. In full disclosure, I skipped a few years of school and wasn’t even 21 when I started my first year of vet school. To my classmates who had to put up with my immaturity and lack of emotional intelligence, mixed with over-eagerness of touching animals and “jumping” right in, I’m so sorry.

I didn’t hang with a lot of my veterinary classmates, and I befriended more undergraduate friends than vet school friends during my years there. This was probably based on the fact that 1) I couldn’t get into bars yet (The Palms and Chapter House!), and 2) My maturity level was likely still at the undergrad level.

Now that I’m in the “second half” of my life, I hope I’m a bit wiser. With that, I wish I hung out at OTS parties more.

I would have enjoyed vet school with you all more.

Transitioning from Animal Sciences at Virginia Tech to Cornell veterinary school was hard. Many of you may not have known, but I had transfer letters typed out to Purdue and University of Minnesota my first year. The financial stress of unsubsidized loans accumulating during veterinary school really stressed me out (8% unsubsidized accumulating while in vet school sucked!). I pretty much cried to my parents EVERY. SINGLE. DAY  during the first semester, hidden away in the tiny phone booth closest of the OTS house on Willard Way. Going from being a big fish in a small pond at Virginia Tech to being a tiny fish in a huge pond at Cornell was really hard for me.

I felt that all my classmates – even those with little animal experience – were so brilliant. Everyone was so smart at Cornell! I felt like I couldn’t keep up – I was the “geek” closing out the library on Friday nights as I really struggled with PBL and Cornell. In retrospect, I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy vet school a bit more. I was too busy nerding out just trying to maintain my C’s.

As we all rotated in clinics, I remember really meeting some of you for the first time (in full disclosure, I only hung out with those who sat in the back 1/3 of the classroom). I remember thinking “OMG, this person is so cool! Why didn’t I hang out with them earlier?”

In retrospect, if I could do vet school all over again, what would I have done differently?

I would have stayed for my senior year at Virginia Tech to mellow me out.

I would have taken a gap year and gone to vet school later in life so I had a few years to mature.

I would have explored Ithaca with you more.

I would have stressed less and enjoyed the ride more.

Hindsight is 20:20. With that, I’m honored to have been colleagues with you all. Thanks for rocking it and being there, even if I wasn’t. And see you at the 30-year reunion for sure.

  1. I was the same way – I did not enjoy vet school because I had to study SO much just to keep my head above water. I call those 4 years the Dark Ages in my life because I didn’t watch TV or do anything fun for most of the time, unless I was between semesters.

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