Congratulations to our summer ASPCA scholarship recipients!
Thanks to a generous grant from the ASPCA, these three outstanding students will have the opportunity to gain knowledge that can help save the lives and improve the well-being of countless numbers of shelter animals. As students in Maddie’s® Online Graduate Certificate Program in Shelter Medicine, they will receive a tuition reimbursement upon successful completion of the current course, Integrating Veterinary Medicine with Shelter Systems.
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| Click on a image to meet the scholarship recipient! | ||
Meet the Recipients
Dr. Mary Manspeaker
Dr. Mary Manspeaker is a 2002 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. She has served as a small animal relief veterinarian in North Florida since 2005. Her introduction into shelter medicine was as a veterinary responder for the ASPCA during the summer of 2012 where she worked for six months caring for 700 cats rescued from a hoarding situation. Since that life-altering experience she has been fortunate enough to again deploy with the ASPCA during disaster relief and other cruelty cases. Her goal is to continue her veterinary career serving animal welfare organizations. Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program through the University of Florida is helping her gain the theoretical knowledge needed to understand the animal sheltering process so that it may be applied in practice. She currently lives in Norwalk, Connecticut with her two cats, Mac and Saimiri.
Dr. Brie Sarvis
Dr. Brie Sarvis graduated from Ross University of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. She completed a small animal internship in Dallas, Texas. Thereafter, she trained in emergency and critical care for a year before going on to work as an emergency and general practice clinician in San Diego, California. During this time she began volunteering for the local humane society, which sparked her love for shelter medicine.
Dr. Sarvis is proud to be a veterinarian at the San Diego Humane Society. She also volunteers for the Feral Cat Coalition, a trap and release program which safeguards the area’s feral cat population. “I was still new to shelter medicine when I began working with the Feral Cat Coalition.” said Dr. Sarvis. “I was amazed at the sheer number of volunteers who showed up from our community each time. Their excitement and dedication was contagious. I feel so fortunate to be able to be part of a huge community effort to save ferals, and as a veterinarian at the Humane Society, to take this effort even further to help all strays, neglected and abused pets.” Through her Maddie’s Certificate training, Dr. Sarvis hopes to provide the highest standard of care to the shelter population, empower others who are already a part of the shelter movement, and bring animal welfare education to her community and the surrounding areas.
Dr. Veronica Yu
I qualified as a veterinary surgeon from University of Bristol, UK in 2008. As a veterinary student, I have always had an interest in animal welfare and spent a lot of my rotation year in the RSPCA. I relocated back to Hong Kong after graduation and took up a full-time position in a local charitable organisation namely the Society for Abandoned Animals (SAA) as my first job. The SAA has a private clinic as well as a shelter that adopted a “no-kill” policy. My year in the SAA was a very challenging yet enriching experience both professionally and personally. The multi-disciplinary nature of shelter medicine allowed me to combine my genuine interest in animal welfare and clinical medicine in benefiting the wellness of stray/ shelter animals. I was inspired to work towards the higher qualification on Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law (AWSEL) by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), United Kingdom.
I first signed up for the online Shelter Animal Behavior and Welfare module over the spring semester. I was extremely pleased with the course as it offers the best of both worlds- flexibility of off-campus learning; well-structured and high quality education from an established institution as well as the platform for fellow students/ shelter veterinarians to exchange experience and ideas. I have therefore decided to complete the whole Maddie’s ® Online Certificate.
I am truly grateful for this exceptional opportunity that the ASPCA offers and I am determined to make the most out of the Maddie’s ® Online Certificate. I believe the insightful and practical knowledge that I acquired from the online certificate would provide me with the solid foundation in sailing through my long career in improving welfare of animals, including shelter dogs and cats.