The shortage of large animal veterinarians in the U.S. has been well documented and continues to border on crisis level in the livestock industry. In a call to action, land-grant colleges, such as South Dakota State University (SDSU), have developed programs to attract more students to the profession.
SDSU has teamed up with the University of Minnesota to develop the Professional Program in Veterinary Medicine (PPVM), which helped new veterinarian Renea Burggraff launch her career.
Burggraff has always loved animals, so being a veterinarian was a natural fit. Several months ago, she joined the Twin Lakes Animal Clinic in Madison, S.D., and has since worked with small animals, horses and other large animals.
While Burggraff enjoys working with animals, the same can be said for the producers she serves.
“It makes it special when you have that relationship, you’re working with them and you know they are starting to trust you as a new vet,” she says.
PPVM Program Paves the Way
For Burggraff, earning a vet degree would not have been possible without SDSU’s program. She spent her first two years at SDSU before transitioning to the University of Minnesota in St. Paul for additional classwork and clinicals. She also received the veterinary tuition assistance program scholarship, which for Burggraff was around $75,000 per year while attending SDSU and the University of Minnesota,” Burggraff explains.
“The only stipulation is you have to work in South Dakota for four years, every year that you received the scholarship essentially, so it worked out really well,” she says. “It paid for a good chunk of schooling, so it just made sense to go to SDSU.”
Without the scholarship, she’s not sure where she would have been able to go to vet school due to the high cost of tuition.
Burggraff was one of 18 in the first class of PPVM students that graduated in May. She had no problem finding a job at Twin Lake Animal Clinic.
Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity
For Burgraff, SDSU’s PPVM program was the chance of a lifetime and led to realizing her dream.
“You get to know your professors. You’re not a number, you’re a name,” she says. “We have other opportunities that maybe some of the bigger schools don’t get.”
