Years ago, Renee Silverman worked in a pet food store where she helped people choose the proper diet for their pets; this turned out to be the first step toward following her passion and finding a new career. “I developed a huge interest in animal nutrition, and it snowballed into wanting to give my animals the utmost care to keep them healthy, so I wanted to learn all I could,” Renee explains. “I met a customer who told me about the Vet Tech program at Carrington. I checked it out, went on a tour of the campus—and that was it!” Although Renee knew about other vet tech programs, it was the hands-on student lab at Carrington College that ultimately made her decide to apply there.
“To be able to assist in surgery and get hands-on experience—that’s what sold me on it,” she says.
Renee began the Veterinary Technology program in 2017. She worked three jobs at the time, juggling multiple shifts and trying to maintain a work/life balance while studying. “That was a really difficult time,” she remembers, “It was too much stress, trying to pick up shifts instead of doing school. So I took time off and found a single, great job—I could schedule my work for forty hours in four days, so I was able to come back to school and have classes Monday through Thursday, and it worked out.” Her job—at Bay Area Veterinary Specialists—proved to be another great steppingstone in her career, since it is a veterinary hospital specializing in dermatology, neurology, oncology, internal medicine, and emergency care—all furthering her exposure to and experience in veterinary care. Renee is now in her fifth and final term and is thrilled to be doing her externship at her current employer. She plans to stay long term, and in the future to possibly do relief shifts (as an on-call vet tech) at other hospitals. As a Vet Tech student, Renee’s favorite thing to do so far is anesthesia.
“I’m still really learning it, but I really enjoy running anesthesia, learning how to do that with safety, learning CPR, and learning how to help a patient who is crashing,” she says. “It’s one of the most important things to know really well, inside and out.”
Renee’s ability to push through the challenges she faced early in her course of study, her academic performance, and the great job she’s doing at her externship have not gone unnoticed by her teachers—but neither has her role as a mentor. They have witnessed her excel to the top of her class since returning to the program, and that she goes out of her way to help classmates who need some extra help. Renee has recently teamed up with a new lab partner; a classmate who needed a bit more one-on-one time to learn the material.
“I always ask him to partner with me,” Renee says. “He needs someone to be patient, and I need a good partner! He gets things down—he just needs a bit of extra time to work with someone while he’s learning it.”
The Veterinary Technology department unanimously agreed that Renee deserves recognition for her hard work, academic excellence, resilience, and compassion. Her peers and instructors are proud of her and excited for her future, and her patients are lucky to be in her care.
