Exciting News

The end of this last week was an eventful one! As usual, each week goes by so quickly, and now I can hardly believe the weekend is almost over!

Our class held elections for our class leaders on Friday, and my classmates nominated and elected me for Vice President! I am very honored to be recognized as a leader to represent my class! I have a lot of ideas to shape our new school and now I am in a position to implement some of them. I feel that the leadership our class elected has an excellent dynamic (just like our class). This is a four year position as well!

On Thursday, the final exam was held for the elective class I was taking (International Veterinary Medicine). Our grades were posted the next day and I passed the class with an 87 on the exam! Woo hoo! I will also be finishing another class this week with a final paper due tomorrow morning!

With all of the studying and time spent in class it's pretty difficult to get a chance to go out and see the scenery, but I have had the chance to sneak off into Logan Canyon and check out the fall colors. The leaves started changing about two or three weeks ago in the canyon and have started changing here in the valley within the last week and a half. The brilliant colors are very stunning!

(Tony Grove in Logan Canyon, UT)

This week will mostly be preparation for the next round of midterms. About half of my classes have a few tests and quizzes throughout the semester, but a few (like the ones I mentioned above) ride on only one exam at the end of the course. One other class that is formatted this way is my Principles of Surgery class. Before starting our Junior year of instruction, we have to pass an examination that proves that we are competent at skills essential to surgery. In order to better prepare us for this test, we take this Principles of Surgery course our first semester of freshman year. At the end of the course we are given two hours to complete a list of tasks (i.e. different suture patters, tying knots, scrubbing, gloving and gowning, correctly identifying surgical instruments and properly performing a variety of sterile techniques). We must perfectly pass the test in order to pass the class. If for any reason we fail the test, we are given a second chance next fall to try to pass the test again before moving up to WA. It has been a lot of fun practicing applicable techniques! I am gaining a lot of confidence in my surgical capabilities each time I practice!

(practice cruciate sutures on my suture block by yours truly)

(All sterile after scrubbing and sterile gloving and gowning)

Hope all is well with everyone! Cheers from UT!

xoxo

C