Veterinary Leadership Experience

One of the first things I was confronted with in vet school was this thing they call VLE. With a name like "Veterinary Leadership Experience," it's chances of turning out not awkward are dubious at best. Considering there were a million other things we needed to do that week, it wasn't very welcome, and frankly, just sounded weird.

They drove us out about an hour to this place that's normally some sort of Christian camp, with little rooms that have four bunk beds and a bathroom and shower. I had to borrow a sleeping bag from one of the faculty, because when you're an international student packing to go off for school, you don't think "Oh! I better remember to bring my sleeping bag in case I need to sleep in a cabin for three days at the start of vet school." It was also winter. Admittedly, winter here is a bit of a joke, but I still like to be warm, and the necessity of packing blankets and sweaters ended up with me lugging a massive suitcase around and feeling like a total dweeb.

The first evening, they showed us a video "about" VLE, so we would know what to expect, because apparently some people had got the idea from a vet school in the states that has been having lots of success with it. They have to go for an entire week though, and not just three days. The point was to get to know our classmates in a more intimate and non-stressful environment: if you remember, a lot of them just finished pre-selection, during which they all hated each other for being competition. So this was aimed at fostering cooperation, teamwork, and maybe professionalism, and also just getting to know everyone so you're a more coherent group. VLE probably did do a bit of that, but I don't think it worked out as well as they intended. In my experience, who we talked to at VLE had very little influence on who we ended up getting close to, and now that we know who everyone is, it's hard to think back to VLE and connect it to the same people. Also, I did a lot of talking to the other girls in my cabin when we were in bed or getting ready for bed, so I didn't have my glasses on and I have no idea who I had which conversations with.

So back to that video. It showed lots of people doing teamwork exercises and having deeply personal moments with each other, and there were short interviews with a bunch of crying people that were like "I have just had the best time ever here, it's been life-changing for me. I was hesitant at first but I'm so glad I got into it. I can't believe it's over, I'm so sad sob sob sob!" This makes me slightly worried. Am I going to be like these people by the end of our three days? Could this mysterious "VLE" thing have such a profound life-changing effect on me, and I will go home and next week feel like a new person?

Maybe unfortunately, that's not how it turned out.

Our time at VLE was divided, mostly, into two things. There were all sorts of vets, some of them faculty from the school and some of them practicing vets that came along, and they gave us a bunch of presentations. In between, we were divided up into groups of maybe ten or fifteen people and were sent off to do teamwork building games. As far as the presentations go, apparently veterinarians have one of the highest suicide rates, so they were very, very concerned about getting that across to us. They spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about stress management and I don't even remember what else. The main point I took home from VLE was "please don't commit suicide."

The group games were alright. Some of them were actually fun, but a lot of them were lame. There was one where we got in a circle and were supposed to open up to each other, which was about as deep and touching as you'd expect it to be. There was one where everyone had to have one finger supporting a long stick and, as a team, lower it to the ground. This didn't work very well because, apart from the controlling people and the not paying attention people, there wasn't enough room for everyone around the stick. They had the entire class play a game where you ran around stealing people's fabric "tails", and I think it was supposed to teach us something about professionalism but I'm not really sure. Figure that one out.

They also had a karaoke night. Unfortunately, it wasn't optional, because every group had to do a piece. I don't remember what we did, but I didn't know the words. Everyone was exceedingly awkward, and all the shy people hid in the back behind the tall people and away from the mics.

The best and most memorable part of VLE was one night when they took us out to a glow worm grotto. It started out badly, because they needed to take several trips to get everyone there, so there was a lot of standing around in the pitch blackness wondering if we had been abandoned. Then we went tromping down this excessively muddy, narrow path into the forest, filled with spiders and slippery banks around a creek that you had to clamber up, and I was starting to wonder if it was at all worth it. But then, we finally got to the grotto, and you could see thousands of little glow-in-the-dark spots all over the walls. It went on for a ways, coming up to a dead end with a water fall and tons of the little glowing guys. Then, after your brief moment awe, you had to squeeze around everyone else and tromp back.