WC Grad Becomes Veterinary Specialist
"Professor Verville helped me become the best possible applicant for veterinary school."
—Lauren Marini '02
After graduating from Cornell University's School of Veterinary Medicine last spring, Lauren Marini '02 is now working as a small-animal intern at Washington State University's veterinary teaching hospital. After the yearlong internship, Lauren intends to pursue a residency program in neurology and neurosurgery—a specialty she explored at Washington College within the behavioral neuroscience concentration.
The former biology major with a minor in psychology is particularly interested in treating animals with seizure disorders such as epilepsy, back injuries and neurological disorders resulting in paraplegia, blindness or deafness.
"General practitioners still exist," Lauren says, "but a lot of specialists are cropping up as people demand more specialized care for their pets."
Lauren helps run the hospital's overnight emergency service and intensive care unit. "A lot of the critical patients we see don't make it, but there are some happy endings," she says. "We couldn't do much for the dog who had ingested rat poison—he had internal bleeding that we could not stop—but the cat with asthma seems to be doing very well."
Lauren always knew she wanted to go to veterinary school. She worked in veterinary hospitals during her summer breaks, conducted HER senior research project on the croaker fish, and spent a summer internship studying the transmission of disease on a goat farm in Massachusetts.
"Professor Verville helped me become the best possible applicant for veterinary school," Lauren recalls. "She did a lot of the research for me and helped with the application process. It worked. Cornell is the #1 school for veterinary medicine in the country."