Students Expand Education Horizons by Thinking Beyond Familiar Geography

Often, college students intent on pursuing further professional education narrow their choices by geography, and apply only to those schools located in nearby areas.

Brendan Moulder, a sixth-term veterinary medicine student at St. George’s University, in Grenada, West Indies, believes that is a mistake.

Brendan, a graduate of the University of Delaware, a university located only an hour from his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, achieved good grades and amassed years of experience in a veterinary animal hospital before applying to US veterinary schools. But he did not secure a seat until he remembered his half-completed application to St. George’s School of Veterinary Medicine. In two weeks, he completed his application, submitted it, used some frequent-flier miles from his father to fly to Grenada to see the campus firsthand, and interviewed.

“I spent three days on the beautiful little Caribbean island. I loved the campus, the island, and the school,” said Brendan. “I was about as happy as I could be when I got the call for acceptance.”

Campus Leadership…and International Experiences
With his future secured and his educational path set, Brendan leapt at the chance to do more. He became president of the St. George’s chapter of the Student American Veterinary Medical Association and led his fellow students in organizing “One Health, One Medicine” Clinics in Grenada with their student counterparts from the medical school.

Wanting to achieve more, Brendan applied for a grant from St. George’s research affiliate, the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF), so that he could work on a project in western Kenya with Lian Doble, a PhD graduate from the University. In conjunction with the University of Edinburgh, Brendan and Lian researched emerging zoonotic diseases, including swine tapeworm and its transfer back and forth to humans.

In his project, thousands of miles from his home and from Grenada, a bemused Brendan bumped into a woman in a small village in Kenya who was wearing a St. George’s sweatshirt. It turns out the woman’s niece had matriculated at St. George’s to study business.

“St. George’s gets more people from more places….and I would not have met them if I had gone to veterinary school in the United States. I constantly meet people and I often have to go to Wikipedia to look up the place they came from!” says Brendan.

What does he have to tell students now struggling with the choice of where to attend veterinary school? “It’s not worth delaying––the life experience is great. I spent three to four years figuring out what I wanted and I realize now if I had done this sooner, I would have graduated by now.”

Information on the University is available at www.sgu.edu, and through YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter at StGeorgesU.