b'EMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE, ACHIEVE AND LEAD TOGETHEREMPOWERED TO INSPIRE,VETERINARY WOMAN CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGEACHIEVE & LEAD TOGETHERcircumstantial barriers that have denied people the chances of obtaining a veterinary degree are addressed. I am also proud I know the support we are providing will helpto support a syllabus that is highly practical, with problem-us build a community of diverse and resilientsolving skills, growth mindset development and reflectivity at veterinary surgeons. its core.What motivated you to want to change things?My experience of getting into vet school and the vet school experience itself were drivers for me to want to make a streams of support that truly will make an impact on bothdifference to the vets of tomorrow. I must say, I loved my time the demographics of our profession, and the future of manyat vet school and made friends for life. deserving individuals.However, even before vet school, gaining the relevant animal From sponsoring students, supporting university initiativesrelated experience was challenging. I was lucky that my Mum that reduce the impact of digital poverty of students, providingwas a teacher - she taught someone who had gone on to hardship funds and dedicated communications trainingbecome a practice manager and accepted me for a placement. throughout the syllabus, I know the support we are providingFrom there it was about making friends and connections, will help us build a community of diverse and resilientwhich was always challenging for a young person with veterinary surgeons. concurrent academic pressure.How do you feel this is making a difference? The financial impacts of being in vet school had a significant The statistics that weve pulled together about graduateeffect on my family. I felt like EMS options were limited retention and engagement have demonstrated to us thatbecause I could not afford to get to placements outside of my the changes weve made on the graduate programme havelocal area. definitively impacted upon our graduate vets. Our clinical communities drive our clinical decision making -I returned to work at the practice I hadwe have strong attendance at meetings and our outputs from initially spent time at and was lookingthe clinical board all come from colleagues in practice, so we at purchasing it after several yearsensure we are discussing the things that are relevant and that of experience when it was sold to amatter to them. Again, Medivet were as engaged with the idea corporate group.as I was, and complemented our hub-and-spoke model andI worked as a Clinical Director beforedesire to ensure clinical work remains at the very heart of the moving to become a Regional Directorbusiness.at Medivet. Ive been here for the last seven years and have progressedIn relation to the UCLan initiative, I am proud to think of, through several roles, including Head ofnot only the difference we are making at an individual Clinical Operations, Head of Graduatestudent level, but also when I see the diversity of the Programme and my current role asstudent population and compare it to the population that I Director of Clinical Governance. experienced at university.When I was involved with the recent admission interviews, I could see that they were taking a very different approach to selection - ensuring that demographic or 46www.veterinarywoman.co.uk'