For Montana State students, veterinary medicine is a family affair

BOZEMAN - Bob Syvrud practiced veterinary medicine in North Dakota and California and later in Polson beginning in the 1970s. He founded an independent research company and worked in equine health for 25 years, passing that family business down to his son, Kevin.

Now, at Montana State University, Bob's grandson Jabin is carrying on his family legacy in veterinary medicine. He is one of four current students in the WA-MT Cooperative Program in Veterinary Medicine who plan to be second - or in Jabin's case, third - generation veterinarians. For a program with an annual class of 16 students, it's a significant proportion.

Jabin Syvrud grew up in Helena and graduated from MSU with a degree in cell biology and neuroscience in 2021. After working on a ranch near Polson after graduation, he realized the family business he'd been around his whole life was becoming more appealing than his original goal of pursuing medical school. He returned to MSU, applying for the unique cooperative veterinary program in which Montana residents spend their first year at MSU before completing the final two years of their training at Washington State University in Pullman, followed by a fourth year of clinical rotations. As part of the cooperative program, Montana students save money on tuition by completing their first year in their home state. Once they transition to Pullman, they pay the same tuition as WSU's in-state residents.

"I absolutely adored the family I worked for, so it would be very fulfilling to be able to be a veterinarian and be around this type of people, helping them continue their way of life," Syvrud said of his decision to pursue his veterinary degree. "In Montana, people have so much more of a relationship with their vet in terms of the proximity that they work in."

In a state with a documented and significant dearth of veterinarians, the program, housed at MSU in the College of Agriculture, aims to fill a very real need for rural communities. Each year, 16 accepted students study anatomy, histology, immunology, nutrition and more with faculty who are themselves professional and practicing veterinarians. They then bring an established group relationship to Pullman, where they join a total class size of roughly 140.

Now halfway through their year at MSU, Syvrud and his classmates are preparing for that transition. The first-year curriculum at MSU and WSU is virtually identical, and as they progress toward their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees, the students will transition from learning the science to practicing it in vet clinics and WSU's teaching hospital.

Drew Newman, who is originally from Great Falls, hopes to one day take over his own family's practice, and said it's been particularly fascinating to compare his own educational experience with that of his parents. One of his favorite courses has been Principles of Surgery - something current students are introduced to in their very first semester.

"Talking to my parents, they didn't talk about surgery until the third or fourth year," Newman said. "We're building up the little skills now, and then it will be in the back of our heads when we revisit it. It's a more hands-on class, but it's fun. It's cool to think that you can get some of those more advanced principles, just in your first year."

In first-year anatomy, for example, students perform dissections, overseen by faculty, familiarizing themselves with the wide range of animal bodies they will someday treat. Kala Bertolino, who grew up outside of Red Lodge and whose mother's veterinary practice was based in their home, has shared Newman's interest in comparing her own education with that of previous generations.

After receiving a degree in math from MSU in 2022, she took a few years off, working in a human hospital before returning to the field of veterinary medicine. She said that sharing her education with her mother has expanded their mother-daughter relationship to include a professional and collegial element.

"When I'm learning about these things, I think back a lot of times about how she would do something. I have a profound sense of understanding that I'm not learning this just to pass a test. I'm learning this for the rest of my life," she said. "Having a small cohort, we get to see a lot of important things at an up-close and hands-on level. It's helpful to understand that the muscle memory I'm building now or the techniques I'm building now are forever."

Students in the cooperative program do not have to have a degree in any particular field to apply; admission is based on completing scientific prerequisites, GPA and other academic factors. But Bertolino has found that her math studies fostered a way of thinking that has deeply impacted her approach to veterinary medicine.

"I'm still very passionate about math. I love it, and I really see how a solid foundation in logic it helpful no matter what you're doing," she said. "I took a lot of math classes where it was like, 'Here's a problem you haven't seen before. How can you think through it?' So I think when I see a problem, like a certain disease or some biomarker, I'm trying to think through the logic. How did we get here? How do I solve this?"

Maria Becker is not only the daughter of two veterinarians but also has three brothers who all graduated from MSU, one of whom now works as a wildlife veterinary technician. Originally from Shelby, she said she values the opportunity to gain a high-quality and experiential education close to home, and she hopes to transition into emergency veterinary medicine after she graduates. But her own family experience has exposed her to the true breadth of possibility in the field.

"My mom is a small animal general practitioner, while my dad works for USDA-APHIS as a regulatory vet," she said. "He has a very niche job of where he gets to see an array of animals crossing the border from Canada into the U.S., such as cattle, horses, pigs, elk, and occasionally various zoo animals. The ability to immediately practice veterinary medicine, either in Montana or elsewhere, is the exact goal of the cooperative program, said Garret Ryerson, a teaching professor and the assistant director for MSU's Montana Veterinary Medicine program. And being able to start out in a small group allows for a more tailored experience so that each student gets the hands-on practice they need to gain a full understanding of critical concepts.

"Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including those with lifelong ties to veterinary medicine and others who discovered the profession more recently," said Ryerson. "Over the past 12 years, we have been proud to see our graduates now serving in critical roles as associate veterinarians, practice owners, state veterinarians, boarded specialists and leaders in their communities. We know this next generation of students will make meaningful contributions to human and animal health, and we look forward to seeing the impact they will have across the state and wherever their careers take them."

The tight-knit relationships at MSU reflect the importance of veterinarians in their communities across Montana, a key element of why returning home to practice in Montana is a priority for many of the program's aspiring vets.

"I am pursuing a career in veterinary medicine because not only is it a blend of all my interests, but also provides the opportunity to live a fulfilling life," said Becker. " I look forward to returning to rural Montana and practicing the veterinary skills that I am learning now."