The Veterinary Business Management Association placed third this year in an annual competition against 33 chapters across the United States as well as a few international chapters.

VBMA is a student-driven organization that allows students in the College of Veterinary Medicine to “increase business knowledge and create networking opportunities,” according to the VBMA’s website.

“We want not only to be good doctors, but good businessmen,” said Katie Weigman, third year veterinary medicine student and president of Iowa State’s VBMA chapter.

The competition ranking is based on membership, participation and number of events each chapter holds throughout the year. For every event held, the club will submit a form to the National VBMA executive board, who keeps track of all the different chapters.

“ISU VBMA had a great year with a very busy executive team that kept working to make sure our chapter members always had a new speaker to look forward to every couple of weeks,” said Tyler Feldhacker, third year veterinary medicine student and vice president of Iowa State’s chapter.

The executive team also organized two business-related courses for the veterinary students to take, Feldhacker said.

Members of the organization had the chance to travel to Orlando, Fla., for the National VBMA conference Jan. 13 to 14 where they received $1,000 as well as a plaque for being the third most active VBMA chapter.

Iowa State’s VBMA provides veterinary medicine students the opportunity to hear from speakers about practice management and student debt, Weigman said. The organization also hosts workshops such as resume building, she said.

Weigman said the average debt for a veterinary medicine student is about $130,000.

“A major concern is how can we be financially stable in the future,” Weigman said, adding VBMA helps students gain knowledge in order to achieve that.

Also, many of the members hope to be owners of their own businesses someday, Weigman said.

Weigman plans to work in equine ambulatory practices after school and eventually own her own practice.

“We take a lot of pride in our accomplishments,” she said.