Successful Events: Penn Vet LGBTQ&Allies Update

 Hello Broad Spectrum folks! Hope everyone is settling back into classes and the excitement of a new semester. Here at Penn we just finished week 1 of our semester after a successful Orientation for our incoming class V'15.

As a fundraiser for the club we bought RAINBOW colored pencils and sold them to 2nd year students to give as gifts for their 1st year mentees (all of 1st year students use colored pencils for anatomy lab 'chalk talks' among other things). We had also made tons of RAINBOW "PENN VET" and "PENN VET Ally" buttons to give away to students, faculty and staff and have encouraged them to wear them on their backpacks, messenger bags, totes, and briefcases or to proudly display them on their office door. These have been a huge hit and we already have a few first year students that are eager to get involved with the club.  

We also co-hosted a Welcome Back Potluck Dinner with the Class of 2014 and were able to provide free beer to the event. It was a huge success, with a big turnout and a ton of deliciously prepared goodies from buffalo chicken dip with tortilla chips, tofu salads, pasta salads, yummy cheeses with baguette, finger licking pulled pork, tons of sweets including homemade pies and cookies... whew! DELICIOUS!

Welcome Back to School!

We hope those of you returning to school had a decent summer and wish all the best for the pre-veterinary students currently applying into schools.  We, in turn, wanted to let you know what we've been up to these past few months! 

In July, Broad Spectrum VSA attended its first American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, where we held our first national meeting.  Our Broad Spectrum representatives discussed our mission with many prominent members of the veterinary community, including Dr. Wayne Hollingshead, LGVMA President; Dr. Ken Gorzyca, Executive Secretary of LGVMA; Dr. Mike Chaddock, Deputy Director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC); and Lisa Greenhill, Associate Executive Director for Institutional Research and Diversity of the AAVMC.

Some highlights of the meeting included the creation of Starter Kits for LGVMA or LGBT-affiliated student groups, so that any group of students that wants to start a chapter will not be left to reinvent the wheel.  The starter kit would include

• A constitution and bylaws
• A contact person for help
• An LGVMA contact
• Event and fundraising ideas

We will be working on this throughout the year, so we'll let you know of any updates as they happen.  In the meantime, do direct any questions about student groups to broadspectrumoutreach@gmail.com

We also discussed our website which is currently in beta form.  Here is a sneak peak!

We'll be going live with it VERY SOON and will keep you posted.  The website will include

• Resources with links to school clubs-so if your club is not represented in our spreadsheet (see the previous blog post) let us know!
• Guide for New LGBT Groups
• Calendar of Upcoming Events
• Potentially a Members-Only section!

Finally, our representatives discussed next year's Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA) Symposium at Purdue in March of 2012.  We will be holding a meeting for students who are interested in joining, as well as helping/attending numerous LGVMA functions, panels, and workshops.  We'll be distributing buttons, so keep your eyes out!

In the mean time, do let us know if your school is hosting any events, and we will share the information through our blog!

Direct any questions, comments, and concerns to broadspectrumoutreach@gmail.com
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