New club promotes vet tech program
Jacqueline Bernatt
The Veterinary Technology Club at Mesa Community College is part of a national organization of professional veterinary clubs.
The 28 club members get together monthly and work to accomplish three goals: educate about MCC’s vet tech program, promote awareness about the role of a veterinary technician, and to give back to the Arizona community.
“Maybe ten or twelve years ago there was a visibility study done, and we needed a veterinary studies program.
There needs to be one of these somewhere in the district, and MCC was the one that moved forward and investigated it,” said Dr. Jill Sheport. “But for a few years it didn’t have a permanent director. They were kind of teaching courses, but there were no animals with really no facilities. It’s been an organized program with a director for about seven years since I’ve been here.”
Sheport has been on staff for seven years, and worked vigorously to get the vet tech program off the ground. When she arrived at MCC the school had only a vaguely rendered curriculum.
There were no animals for students, no facilities for study, only a few classes offered and no permanent program director.
“Dr. Sheport and Lewanne have poured their heart and souls into this program. Vet Tech Club founder and president,” Lindsay Morgan said.
Lewanne Sharp, an applied sciences instructor, teaches some of the classes in the veterinary technology program. She has lent the school several of her own horses for the greater good of the program.
For the better part of 10 years, Dr. Sheport worked to promote and expand the program starting basically from scratch.
Seven years later she runs one of the most successful vet tech programs in the country. When asked about the success rate of her students, her happiness chould be seen.
“We have an outstanding success rate. Our past rate on the national board exam (to become) a certified veterinary technician is 92 percent. The national average for AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) programs like ours is about 75 percent,” Sheport said. “So, we are ‘way out there’ good. Our graduates are also highly sought after by practices, and we have an extensive internship program.”
The program deals with a large amount of science. First-year student representative, Michele Robles, was enjoying her experience.
“I was shocked coming in because there is so much science. We have all the animal care shifts, so we get to work with the horses and the beagles. It’s fun. I like it,” Robles said.
She became involved with the vet tech program through her newfound love of animals and has the opportunity to work with MCC’s program “pets.”
MCC is currently in possession of four goats, two horses, six beagles, five cats, two rats, two rabbits and soon, baby goats.
Veterinary technicians have become the nurses of the vet field, doing everything in an animal practice except diagnosing and describing, and the demand for vet techs is skyrocketing.
“If you go into the department of labor statistics on rapidly growing professions veterinary technology is number 13, so it’s in the top fifteen careers in the country of anything you can think about, any kind of job.
“There is incredible demand, there are just not enough people graduating from programs like this across the country to supply the need right now, but then you add on the 35 percent growth rate over the next ten years they are never going to dig out of the deficit which makes it advantageous for the graduate,” Sheport said.
According to Sheport, there are 10 jobs available for every one vet tech, and MCC’s students are in particularly high demand.
“We are the best. We don’t have a job placement service because we don’t need it. (Students) all get hired usually before they graduate.
“They are hired or offered full time employment upon graduation. We had a student a couple of years ago that two practices were actually bidding for her.
“They both wanted her to be lead tech. They were offering her benefits and salary and hours and trying to top each other.
“Our students are very successful when they are in school, they are very successful getting certified and passing the boards, and when they are out there working they are very good,” Sheport said.
