July 6, 2007

Charlottetown, PE): The Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) at UPEI will host its ninth annual AVC Vet Camp starting Monday, July 9, 2007. AVC Vet Camp has become known around the world as an exceptional educational opportunity for junior high students that possess a love of animals and science.

?This year we are welcoming students from Whitehorse to California to St. John?s and all points in between,? says Joelle Ouellet, AVC Vet Camp Coordinator and member of AVC?s DVM Class of 2009. ?A great deal of time, planning, and energy is put into ensuring AVC Vet Camp delivers an outstanding educational experience for our campers. We evaluate our program every year, we revise our curriculum to keep it current, and we look for new ways to engage our campers in the world of veterinary medicine. We?re proud of our camp and it really shows.?

AVC Vet Camp will take place during the last three weeks of July in the form of three, one-week day camps. During this time, 150 students will have the opportunity to receive a comprehensive and exciting look into the world of veterinary medicine. AVC Vet Camp provides unique hands-on experiences such as learning how to glove, gown and suture, observing surgeries and posing questions to the surgeons throughout the procedures, and learning how to do physical exams on small and large animals.

AVC Vet Camp also provides students with information on social issues, what it takes to become a veterinarian, and career paths available to those pursuing veterinary medicine. AVC Vet Camp is the only veterinary camp of its kind in Canada, and one of only a handful in North America.

?Veterinary medicine is consistently ranked as one of the most respected professions,? says Dr. Tim Ogilvie, Dean of the Atlantic Veterinary College. ?We aim to provide students with an expressed interest in animals and science with the opportunity to see what veterinary medicine is really like. For those with a true passion for veterinary medicine, we hope that their experience through our camp will give them the information needed to select the right high school courses and pathways to move them along to the veterinary profession.?

The camp?s theme this year is ?All Creatures Great and Small? reflecting on popular author James Herriot?s classic work by the same name.

Funded by the four Atlantic provinces, the Atlantic Veterinary College at UPEI is committed to excellence and innovation in education, research and service. Over the past 20 years, the College has graduated approximately 1,000 doctors of veterinary medicine, has become known around the world for its research capabilities, and is the Atlantic region?s only full service veterinary referral hospital.