Life as an Intern at St. Andrews

By Madison Edwards for Equine Business Management class

Michelle Eld is a senior Business Administration Major and has competed on the hunter seat and western team throughout her time at St. Andrews. She is President of the business club and has participated in the honors program. She is a great team leader and a wonderful asset to the program. Michelle is one of six interns doing a semester long internship to organize the American National Riding Commission National Championships (ANRC) hosted by St. Andrews April 17 – 19, 2015.

I spoke to Michelle about her internship.

Q: How has this experience been beneficial?

A: This experience has provided me with insightful knowledge about event planning in addition to giving me the opportunity to have a truly hands on experience throughout planning ANRC.

Q: Were there any challenges you faced along the planning process?

A: The biggest challenge I faced is organizing my time, especially the week of the event because of how much dedication it takes to put on an event of this caliber.

Q: What were some of the major projects you are involved in?

A: The major projects I was involved in was scheduling food vendors and getting sponsorships from local and corporate venues. However, all of us interns worked together in a variety of ways in media relations, hospitality, and volunteer management.

Q: What are some valuable lessons you will take away from this experience?

A: One of the most important things I have gained from this internship is experience is communicating with business owners and building relationships with them. Additionally, I have gained a healthy respect for people who successfully plan and organize large scale events.

Q: How has your St. Andrews education prepared you for this internship.

A: My St. Andrews education has prepared me for this internship by giving me the communication skills that have prepared me to forge successful business relationships. Additionally, it has allowed me to combine my love and knowledge of horses with my business education.

I look forward to this weekend and I wish the best for luck to all competitors! I also want to thank all of the volunteers who have helped us not only this week but also throughout the past few months. 

Life after St. Andrews?

We have been doing some advanced planning with the slightly quieter time in May (especially now that the horses are starting to leave for their summer homes and the numbers at the Equestrian Center are going down). One of the projects I have been involved in concerns helping our students with possible careers early on in college life so they can take the appropriate classes and maximize their St. Andrews education. Discussions for this project led us in several directions one of them being what our graduates are doing now. Renee Jones, Director of Career Services, complies data on what graduates are doing six months after graduation. She has done an incredible job with this the last few years.

2013 – 100% of grads are either working full or part time, furthering their education, doing an internship or serving our country in the military or in organizations such as Peace Corps. Data for previous years are equally impressive 2012 – 96% and 2011 – 94%.

Renee does something that most schools fail to do, she gets in touch with every graduate at the six month mark to find out what they are doing. Most schools poll 20 – 30% and draw conclusions from that and so their results are not quite as accurate as the SAU figures. Renee was kind enough to share the 2013 breakdown with me and it was pretty remarkable. Remember this is 100% of the graduating class reporting not a small sample!

Continuing Education – 14.5%

Internships – 1.3%

Full-Time Employment – 63.2%

Part-Time Employment – 21.1%

St. Andrews maybe small but these figures speak loud and clear for the value of the education provided.

Thanks for sharing Renee!

Pre Vet Internship Series

Caring for Blocked Nasolacrimal Ducts

by Cami Glaff

 

Over the weekend, we were able to clear Astaire’s tear ducts. Often time’s horses will get obstructed tear ducts, which causes the excess tears to flow freely onto their face. They will have a consistent flow of ocular discharge onto their face, regardless of how often you clean the eye. Under normal conditions, tears will flow down the nasolacrimal duct and then drain from the nostrils. When those membranes become swollen and irritated, that is when we will see an excess of drainage onto their face. An easy fix to this is to have them flushed with sterile saline solution.

To do this, Astaire was sedated and we put a small tube up his nasolacrimal duct. Then we flushed each side with 30 cc of sterile saline solution so that the solution comes up from the tear duct in the eye so you know the blockage has been cleared. Many horses have to have the procedure done every few months to keep their tear ducts clear and healthy.

Pre-Vet Internship Series

We are starting a new regular feature written by students in the Pre-Vet Internship program. They will be sharing their experiences in the internship program as they work with Dr. Kellam to care for the horses at St. Andrews.

Quincey’s Eye Enucleation

By: Cami Glaff and Keli Van Den Hevual

 Quincey is one of our sweetest, most talented horses in our Hunt-Seat program. Before Quincey came to us, he sustained an injury in his left eye that created a good amount of scar tissue and left him partially blind. Last semester, he came in from the pasture one morning with a puncture wound right in the middle of that unhealthy left eye.

       

    Dr. Kellam determined that the puncture was fairly deep into the cornea. Because the puncture was located directly in the middle of his unhealthy scar tissue, we were concerned that the healing process would be long and not without difficulties.
            We treated him for a month; administrating antibiotics multiple times a day, in addition to banamine for the swelling and pain. One morning we came in to find that Quincey’s eye had rupture from a combination of the pressure and infection, and him itching the area.
            It was then decided that Q’s eye would have to be removed. In order for him to have a happy and healthy life Dr. K performed an enucleation of Quincey’s eye. It was a 5 hour surgery with 3 hours of after care. The experience was incredible; we were able to assist Dr. K in an important procedure. Being that up close to it all, we had the opportunity to see every little detail that was happening during his surgery. We also helped by monitoring Quincey health during the whole procedure. Seeing an operation like that from start to finish was amazing, we had the chance to fully appreciate the hands-on learning experience.
            After the surgery, it was very time consuming to look after Quincey while he adapted to having only one eye. We took shift at the barn that lasted 5 hours at a time, in order to monitor him safely. Of course Quincey did not want to help us out. He immediately starting rubbing his eye, and eventually rubbed some of his sutures out. This made our job more complicated; we had to watch him even more closely than we did before. Quincey eventually stopped rubbing, so that his eye could completely heal over without any more setbacks. He is currently fat and happy, and adjusting well to his new one-sided sight.