Bringing different perspectives to diverse work
Funding from the Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program helps support crucial viewpoints in veterinary medicine.
For the past three years, the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has been a recipient of funding through the Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program, out of the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The purpose of the program is to increase the diversity of the food and agricultural scientific and professional workforce and advance the educational achievement of all Americans.
The College is already benefiting from hosting students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in veterinary medicine as a result of the Multicultural Scholars Program. However, buttressing the effort would further grow the diversity of the student body at the CVM, helping to shape a more well-rounded veterinary workforce of tomorrow.
Veterinarians play so many different roles at the interface of animal, human, and environmental health, and a diverse student body best serves the profession by bringing different perspectives to that diverse work.
Laura Moglaard, DVM
“Veterinarians play so many different roles at the interface of animal, human, and environmental health,” says CVM Interim Dean Laura Moglaard, DVM, “and a diverse student body best serves the profession by bringing different perspectives to that diverse work.” In the workplace, veterinarians need to be able to serve the spectrum of clients, and a diverse student body brings a spectrum of opinions and experiences to the table, as students work together to learn clinical decision making and clinical communication skills. “Shared decision-making is the goal,” Molgaard says. “We teach students how to listen to understand the client's perspective and to share information that will be most helpful in supporting the client in making decisions.”
The College is dedicated to increasing efforts to include more students from diverse backgrounds. In the meantime, we’re celebrating the three driven and accomplished students at the CVM who receive funding from the Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program:
Emma Bak
Emma is the first-ever recipient of this funding at the CVM
Hometown: Columbia Heights, Minn.
Class: 2021
Career aspirations: Mixed animal medicine
When Emma Bak was 12 years old, she wanted a pet dog more than anything. Her parents told her that if she could come up with the money for the adoption fee, she could get one. So Bak baked cookies and sold them to her neighbors for a summer. Eventually, she adopted a Shih-tzu mix from a local shelter. Unfortunately, it turned out that the dog had canine parvovirus, which causes a sometimes-deadly gastrointestinal illness.
“The vets I saw were so compassionate,” Bak says. “They worked so hard and, while it was really tragic, having these people so obviously invested in my pet’s care — it could have turned me off from animals completely, but it actually inspired me.” To this day, Bak says she remains inspired by the unique opportunity veterinarians have to show clients kindness during an emotional time.
But she maintains that being able to provide this to clients from diverse backgrounds of course calls for a diverse workforce. “If we want to be able to continue to come up with better ideas or come up with better ways of treating our patients and interacting with our clients, we need to have diversity of background and diversity of thought,” she says. “We are going to be working with all kinds of people.”
In order to accomplish this, Bak says, veterinarians need to have open discussions about the homogeneity of the field. So whenever possible, she tries to ignite these conversations. When completing a research internship for people from minority backgrounds in undergrad, Bak noticed that — being of Native Hawaiian and German descent — she was one of few participants who presented as white.
"One of the biggest things is stepping back to let someone else shine. I think that’s an important conversation to have. How do we talk about how we can step back to allow people to have opportunities? We need that for our field to keep growing and prospering."
—Emma Bak
“I talked to one of the facilitators, who was a veterinarian, and I said, ‘How can I contribute to this and make it easier for people who are from diverse backgrounds who do not fit into the white person mold?’ She told me that one of the biggest things is stepping back to let someone else shine. I think that’s an important conversation to have. How do we talk about how we can step back to allow people to have opportunities? We need that for our field to keep growing and prospering.”
Gabriela Kiesel
Hometown: Nevis, Minnesota
Class: 2023
Career aspirations: Food animal medicine
After being adopted from Colombia and growing up in a town of 400 people in Northern Minnesota, Gabriela Kiesel headed to Bemidji State University to pursue a bachelor's in music performance. “I still do music and that is really important to me,” she says. Her funk band, Dirty Press, for which she plays the alto saxophone, plays gigs around the Twin Cities.
But she didn’t move to the Twin Cities for music — she did so four years ago to finish prerequisites for veterinary school. Growing up, she was surrounded by horses, dogs, birds, cats, and other animals. After graduation, she hopes to eventually open her own clinic that focuses on either swine or poultry health.
“Veterinary medicine is about serving the community and beyond,” Kiesel says. “People often don’t realize how impactful production animal veterinarians are to the world. With the growth of our population, we need to produce more food, and we need to find safer and more ethical ways to meet these needs. The only people who can do that are producers and the veterinarians they work with.”
“There are a lot of people from the Latino community working on farms. Veterinarians who look like them and are easily approachable and don’t seem as threatening can provide a better understanding of where these workers are coming from.”
—Gabriela Kiesel
To Kiesel, a diverse veterinary workforce in production animal medicine is essential to better serve the workforce in the food production industry, which is already diverse. “There are a lot of people from the Latino community working on farms. Veterinarians who look like them and are easily approachable and don’t seem as threatening can provide a better understanding of where these workers are coming from.”
Kiesel thinks one way to bring people from underrepresented backgrounds into the fold is showing them that they belong in it. “Believe in yourself,” she says. “There were a lot of times, especially going through college, that I didn’t really do that for myself. I think in my subconscious I was unsure whether I was cut out for it, but I kept trying and I was.”
Tanzania Menn
Hometown: Crown Point, Indiana
Class: 2023
Career aspirations: Food animal medicine
At a young age, Tanzania Menn was perplexed by the well-being of food production animals. “I would wonder who takes care of that animal that is providing something for us?” she says. “How does the health and importance of the animal then transfer to what they give us and our health?”
Menn took a brief detour to pursue a career in pharmacy at Butler University in her undergrad years, but when she started working in a veterinary clinic’s pharmacy, her bygone childhood dreams were rekindled. Now, she is tracking food animal medicine at the CVM and she says her favorite part is how hands-on her education has been so far, even in her first year.
“Any time I get my hands on an animal, any time I am actually doing something to help an animal, it just makes me so happy,” she says. “The College is always providing opportunities to get more hands-on knowledge. And a lot of our classes also seem to be as applicable as possible to the real world, which I really appreciate. I like that a lot of our courses encourage us to think along the lines of how a veterinarian would think.”
“I think including people who have come from different backgrounds and offer a different perspective could lead to more effective ways of doing something. It could also lead to new ways of trying things that other people may never have thought about before that could even potentially revolutionize an industry.”
—Tanzania Menn
But Menn knows that veterinarians should not, and often do not, all think alike. To her, a more diverse field of veterinarians could propel the occupation forward. “I feel like when a lot of people come from similar backgrounds, they are raised with similar mentalities about how to approach things,” she says. “I think including people who have come from different backgrounds and offer a different perspective could lead to more effective ways of doing something. It could also lead to new ways of trying things that other people may never have thought about before that could even potentially revolutionize an industry.”
Support a diverse future in veterinary medicine
“Veterinary school is very expensive and student debt is a big concern across the country,” says Molgaard, “in part because many veterinarians don't have the earning potential of other health professions. If we cannot provide scholarship support to recruit and retain students from a whole range of backgrounds, we risk only attracting students from higher income communities.”
If you’re interested in supporting scholarships for students from diverse backgrounds, consider giving to the CVM Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship by visiting z.umn.edu/CVMDiversity or contacting Bill Venne, director of development and alumni relations at the CVM, at venne025@umn.edu or 612-625-8480.
