Veterinary Professions Advising Center: an innovative approach to preveterinary advising for Animal Science students

Abstract

Veterinary Professions Advising Center (VetPAC) is a unique undergraduate advising center that combines Career Center services with pre-professional advising for pre-veterinary students at North Carolina State University (NCSU). During the past 10 years, VetPAC has created five distinct internships, three annual study abroad courses, a competitive annual high school summer camp, provided holistic advising, and hosted large-scale advising events that consistently provide resources to more than 800 students annually. The VetPAC provided outreach to an average of 13 local high schools per academic year, and educated over 300 visiting students about VetPAC and pre-veterinary life at NCSU since 2015. NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine has had a minimum of 26% and a maximum of 45% DVM students in the incoming classes who accessed VetPAC resources and advising. This article presents the impact VetPAC has had on pre-veterinary student success at NCSU, and provides an outline of VetPAC’s first 10 years of development as a model of combined career services and pre-professional advising for peer institutions.