Dr. Elizabeth Bauer always wanted to be a veterinarian. It took seven years as an environmental engineer, however, to realize she had “fallen in love with horses again.”
So she returned to Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences and earned her doctor of veterinary medicine degree. She entered a small-animal private practice in Loveland. She found time to serve on the advisory board for FRCC’s Veterinary Technology Program, and she also had Veterinary Technology students work internships at her practice.
We Get to Know Students
“I had a good experience with the students, so it seemed natural to start teaching in the classroom,” Elizabeth says. And since 2004, that is where FRCC students have found her. “I love the small class size. As a two-year program, we really get to know the students.
“I love this program because it’s a mix of book-learning knowledge and hands-on training,” she says. Students, for example, have two internships. One is in a private veterinary practice. The other is at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where FRCC students are rotated through all departments of the hospital.
The program is fully accredited with the American Veterinary Medicine Association.
We’re Here to Teach
With environmental engineering and private practice in her background, teaching at FRCC is a third career for Elizabeth, and she loves it. “This is just a nice place to work,” she says. “It’s friendly. We know why we’re here. We’re here to teach and promote student success.”
And that includes success for students with disabilities. For example, three deaf students have enrolled in the program in recent years.
Veterinary Technicians in Demand
Students can find success in any number of fields that need veterinary technologists. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Standards predicts that the demand for qualified veterinary technologists will exceed the supply. It predicted a 36 percent growth in jobs between 2008 and 2018.
Qualified veterinary technologists will find those jobs, Elizabeth says, in private veterinary practices, research lab, analytical labs, research animal labs, veterinary hospitals, regulatory industries, veterinary supply companies, veterinary pharmaceutical and food companies, and other places in the animal industry.
“This is a profession that’s in demand,” Elizabeth says.
