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This year's CVMA convention was held in the famous city of Calgary, Alberta. Known so well for the exciting 10 days of the Calgary Stampede, incredible sights, professional sports teams, and this year, the gathering site of veterinary professionals as well as some students from across Canada and beyond. The opening ceremony for the convention gave a glimpse at the incredible lectures, labs, and conversations to come. One of the amazing features of the CVMA Convention is the Emerging Leaders Program, presented by Rob Marr, sponsored by Scotiabank Canada and Zoetis.
The CVMA Emerging Leaders Program is looked forward to by many young and newly graduated veterinarians, as well as many professionals with years of experience! This workshop encouraged participants to critically think about different scenarios in the workplace such as conflict, professional conversation and meeting leadership as well as managing friendships and being colleagues all at once. With the highly interactive program, increasing participation from all members of the group was the driving factor in the application of skills written on paper, into real life scenarios in the veterinary work field.
Participants came from a large array of backgrounds from veterinary students like myself and the rest of the SCVMA committee that attended, to small or large animal veterinarians, to veterinary professionals who work in the business side of a practice. This diversity made the program even more insightful, with experiences from all these backgrounds pushing conversations deeper and more advanced with every minute.
Throughout the day we began with understanding what a leader really is and the different aspects of it such as coaching, mentorship, or training and what each of these categories look like. From what seems like such a small topic, would expose questions and opinions that would turn into an extremely engaged conversation with all members of the program. From this we ventured into understanding what management and leadership have in common and their differences. This section allowed participants to understand how certain behaviors might fall more into the role of someone “in charge” vs a colleague who is a good leader and mentor for others.
As a student participating, many of the topics discussed were more focused to the veterinary workplace and post-graduation professionalism however, each topic had an underlying lesson that could be applied to student in their veterinary classes, interacting with peers, becoming a leader for classes in years before them, as well as when working in rotations with all different veterinary professionals and students. This program greatly encourages independence and leadership which I believe is an essential skill for any veterinary student to successfully complete their program and succeed beyond graduation.
Myself and the rest of the SCVMA committee are extremely grateful to the CVMA sponsoring our participation in the 2024 CVMA Convention in Calgary and our participation in the Emerging Leaders Program. The knowledge that we all gained in such a short time will forward our education beyond what we could have ever asked for.
- Samantha Shute, Sr. SCVMA Representative, Atlantic Veterinary College
