The Student American Veterinary Medical Association provides academic opportunities and resources to veterinary medicine students at Iowa State University.

SAVMA is the student version of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the parent organization that Vet Med students graduate into.

Not every Iowa State Vet Med student is involved in SAVMA, but Abbey Smith, president of SAVMA, said 88 percent of the current 596 Vet Med students choose to be members.

The organization is not only for vet students. According to Holly Salzbrenner, the May to December 2017 president of SAVMA, SAVMA Auxillary offers members’ significant others to join in and get together as well.

“Prior to last year, people felt like SAVMA just holds general meetings and that’s all it is. I feel like since then we have made the school more aware of what all SAVMA has to offer to them, not only here in school, but also on a national level,” Smith said.

This year, Smith is trying to make SAVMA better than it has ever been.

“Ever since I started vet school, I always looked up to the people in charge of it. It’s an honorable position. I was involved in leadership positions in undergrad and running for president of SAVMA seemed like a logical thing to do,” Smith said.

SAVMA traditionally holds general meetings three times a semester, but Smith is experimenting with four this spring. At each meeting, SAVMA hosts a speaker to discuss different aspects of veterinary life.

According to Smith, SAVMA hosts a wide range of speakers who discuss a variety of topics.

“The little kid who played Charlie in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ grew up to be a vet and he came and talked to us about his experiences,” Smith said.

Coming up this semester, Smith has organized Dr. Gregg Knape to speak to SAVMA about rabies prevention in Africa, Dr. Cherie Buisson to speak about wellness and Dr. Morgan McArthur, who spoke at last year’s Vet Med commencement ceremony, to give a motivational speech.

Along with educational opportunities, SAVMA has recently begun offering its members the opportunity to apply for travel grants. The grant system, which was the idea of SAVMA vice president Madeline Hogg, is intended to help defray costs of professional travel for students that are presenting research, participating in externships or attending conferences.

“SAVMA does a lot of work to fundraise for students throughout the year and I wanted to create a system that allowed our organization to award some of those funds directly back to students, so with the help of many people we created an award that is specific to vet students only,” Hogg said.

Each grant is worth $100 and is restricted to covering registration, wetlab, hotel and airline fees. Hogg said that the goal is to award 100 grants yearly.

“The organization also provides resources to help students navigate vet school, like financing information or free liability insurance,” Salzbrenner said.

SAVMA hosts various fundraisers to raise money for SAVMA opportunities, such as the Scamper Walk/Run and dog wash fundraiser.

According to Hogg, the Scamper is designed to be a fundraiser for students that are part of SAVMA, but there has not been much money made from the event in the past.

“It mostly turns into a community outreach event. The hope is that we can make it more of a fundraiser this year to help fund the future SAVMA travel grant awards,” Hogg said.

The dog wash fundraiser is a collaboration between two clubs, SAVMA and OTS (Omega Tau Sigma) veterinary fraternity, and the proceeds are split between the two clubs based on how many people help out for each club.

“The mission of SAVMA is to support, empower and inspire all veterinary students in improving their lives, education and career, along with securing a better future for our profession through collaboration with our parent organization, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA),” Hogg said.

Hogg would encourage Vet Med students to join SAVMA because she believes it provides students an opportunity to improve the profession of veterinary medicine and have a voice within the college.

“People should join SAVMA for all the opportunities that are possible. Especially because many of these opportunities help offset the monotony of studying all the time. Plus, they help remind you of the reasons you went to vet school in the first place,” Salzbrenner said.