Victoria Menendez (01:29.199)
Hi superheroes, I'm Victory Knight coming to you from Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, League of VetaHumanz. I'm your host on VetaHumanz Live today and I'll be following on the journey of VetaHumanz in training Celestial Seraph.

Nailah Smith (01:42.19)
Hi!

Victoria Menendez (01:43.917)
So thank you for being on the show today. So I know we've kind of started the semester and our last podcast was prior to the semester starting. So kind of update our audience on what week are we in, know, college and how's it going so far.

Nailah Smith (01:56.846)
That's a good question. What week are we in? Is this week five? I haven't even been keeping track of that stuff. So far, so good though. mean, nothing bad has really happened. So yeah, so far, so good.

Victoria Menendez (02:15.191)
Okay, that's really good. So now that like everything's kind of picking up, what would you say is your favorite course right now in the semester?

Nailah Smith (02:23.47)
Uh, okay, I'm thinking about all the courses right now. Like, I'm, I think I'm gonna say histology, but mainly because I know what to expect. Like, last semester histology, like it was like all pretty new. We were like, uh, what is this? And now that it's just like histology two, the f-

Victoria Menendez (02:39.501)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (02:50.218)
The format hasn't really changed and whatnot. And I love Dr. Figueroa. She's so calming. In her past life, she has had to have been a kindergarten teacher or something. I love to hear her talk. It's so nice.

Victoria Menendez (03:04.633)
That's what you say. What would you say, like, what topics have you been learning in histology?

Nailah Smith (03:08.91)
okay, so we just came from the exam. So definitely we were doing renal and respiratory and hoof and hoof stuff. So of course it was like confusing at the first lecture for each of those sections. But then like when I actually like sat down and like went through it, I was like, okay, okay, this actually sticks in my head. So.

Victoria Menendez (03:32.409)
really good. And I know it's probably a little confusing with all the photos and everything. It's just trying to figure out differentiating everything. can sure it's quite hard, but I'm glad it's going well. It's gotten a lot easier compared to histology one. So now that also labs and everything is picked up, what would you say is your favorite lab? That could be wet labs or could be labs eaten in class.

Nailah Smith (03:39.501)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (03:44.632)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (03:53.582)
probably...

Maybe overall, like NeuroLab. I like AnatomyLab too, but only when I'm dissecting. Because when I'm dissecting, it really helps me go through whatever. But you can't dissect all the time. There's other group members. You have to give them their turn. So I would say maybe NeuroLab is my favorite lab. And probably when Dr. Thomovsky showing all those videos of different

cranial nerve issues, because I know absolutely nothing about nerves. I think it's super confusing. But then she really lays it out for you. And she's like, OK, well, if you have this, then you have this. I feel like she also, if she had a past life, she would have also been a very good elementary school teacher, because she's really funny, really calming. And she's telling you, OK, this is how it is. It doesn't feel degrading in any way whatsoever.

Victoria Menendez (04:57.999)
That's so good. Okay, good. So you're kind of learning like the cranial nerves and like the neural examinations and everything. That's very cool. That's definitely very helpful, especially when you do your physical exams along with it. So what would you say is also like the most interesting thing you've learned in all your classes? Like one of the most interesting ones.

Nailah Smith (05:02.83)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (05:16.142)
Probably still like neuro because again, I didn't know diddly squat, but like cranial nerves. And then Dr. Thomovsky like me to really like easy like when she was showing, gosh, I can't even remember the name for it, but it was like the two kind of ways when your eye rolls back either to like the side or like up or down. Or if you just have it just like stuck somewhere, then this is the ophthalmic.

whatever part that's being affected. So I would say that was the most interesting part, yeah.

Victoria Menendez (05:49.419)
I know you can mention that exams kind of already started. So what studies have you been using this semester compared to last semester and like last year?

Nailah Smith (06:00.366)
I'm still doing the same thing pretty much. I'm going through my objectives and making Anki's. Except for anatomy. Last semester, I've never made any like Quizlets or Anki for like small animal anatomy because I feel like Dr. Hannon's active lesson is good enough. Like all you have to do is like keep going on it every day and keep doing your quizzes over and over again and it's like smooth sailing from there. But for

this anatomy this year, we don't have active lessons. So I definitely wasn't making on keys for that because that would be like over a thousand cards. So what I've been doing is like going through my lecture notes for anatomy and then screenshot like little pictures and then make a separate document, put those pictures on it and then like, like color them out, like the answers. So

That way when I go back, can press on that document, see the picture that's blocked out, and then just try to write next to it what I think that was. Doing that, or also writing out borders, or why is that piece of body important? Why is that important? Because I'm pretty sure she's going to have that on exam. But other than that, for the other classes, it's been pretty much the same thing with...

using the objectives for my anki or like taking a loosely paper and writing certain concepts down the million times like repetition and it's pretty much been working strong for me.

Victoria Menendez (07:42.201)
I guess we're keeping the strategies the same. And I know you've mentioned that they vote the onkyan kind of quizzes and everything's kind of worked. So I'm sure that's gonna go well with large animal anatomy. Kind of what would you say is the biggest challenge that you've had like this past month or like kind of going through your courses and have you been overcoming it?

Nailah Smith (07:44.302)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (07:51.619)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (08:03.534)
My biggest challenge would... Maybe... I would probably say like anatomy because that class, as you know, I haven't really been changing my study habits because that was like what was working for me. But then I realized with anatomy, that's just not going to fly because I'm not making that many cards for an Anki deck. So I would say that class because there's a lot to know. I don't have...

Victoria Menendez (08:08.495)
You

Nailah Smith (08:33.454)
active lesson that's already set up for me so I can keep doing it myself. have to put in the work, very sad, to make sure that I'm doing active recall on my own. And it's a lot. It's a lot of stuff. Even though it's supposed to be comparative anatomy, where it's like, oh, I've seen this before in the dog. Sometimes that is not the case with the horse, with the passive stay apparatus.

there's not that in the dog, like the dog won't be standing forever like a horse will. So like doing that and there's just a lot of parts.

Victoria Menendez (09:13.879)
No, yeah, can definitely see why it's very challenging, especially like, you know, or yeah, you think it's comparative, you see a lot of like, it's quite a few, a lot more things that are new compared to, you know, the dog and the cat. So definitely I could see the challenge. Well, I know you overcome that challenge. I'm kind of steering away from school a bit. Let's talk personal care. How has your sleeping and eating going?

Nailah Smith (09:22.19)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Thank you.

Nailah Smith (09:33.29)
Uh-huh. Uh, eating's been going fine. I was like, I mean, honestly, it's probably been going too good because now I've been signing up for lot of lunch and learns. And there was like one week, I don't remember if it was like last week or the week before, but I had a lunch and learn like four out of the five days of the week and all of them were Chick-fil-A. I know that was so unhealthy. So it's like, yes, I have been eating. Has it been good stuff? Like,

Victoria Menendez (09:42.221)
Mmm.

Nailah Smith (09:59.63)
Chips every lunch is not that great, but I've still been going to the gym, so I'm like, I'll burn it off or whatever. So yeah.

Victoria Menendez (10:08.367)
Well, it's good. Making sure you get, yeah, I love that. And then I know your goal last, your goal that you mentioned in your last podcast was kind of work out your schedule for working in ER. Were you able to meet that goal? Was that something you're still kind of working on?

Nailah Smith (10:24.394)
Yeah, so I did talk to someone who forwarded my email to someone else, hadn't heard from them. And then my advisor is the lady that I started off with like first with asking her and like dipping my toes into the ER. So she's my advisor. So when I met up with her this Tuesday, I was like, hey, remember that lady that she told me to go talk to? Haven't heard nothing. I emailed her back and my advisor was like, let's fix that.

Victoria Menendez (10:39.331)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (10:53.57)
So she personally took me to the person who does the scheduling. They gave me their email and said, email it as soon as possible, because there are positions available. So I did that. So now all it is now is to hair back.

the response, but it should be good. I mean, if nothing happens, I'm gonna like tell my advisor, I'm a rat. I'm a rat, and I'm gonna be like, hey, Dr. Johnson. So yada, yada, yada. I still haven't heard no response, but let's hope it doesn't have to go that way. I mean, I'm not upset about it because at the same time with how busy this semester has been, like,

Victoria Menendez (11:30.338)
No, yeah.

Nailah Smith (11:38.028)
I'm still using it as like, okay, this is my schedule for now. Let me use this as a way that if I do get that ER job, I can like learn how to like rearrange my schedule so that ER job can fit in and still not feel burnout. So I could still go to the gym, still do taekwondo, still meal prep and wash my hair and all the personal care stuff.

Victoria Menendez (11:59.395)
Yes, that's great. Definitely putting those time skills into play. Well, that's good. I you, Castle, got into contact with her again, like the person I could actually. So that's really good. I know that was a goal of yours. Do you have a new go set for next month?

Nailah Smith (12:04.333)
Mm-hmm.

Nailah Smith (12:15.054)
For next month? What's next month? March, March guys. My new... Other than trying to get into the ER maybe. Ooh, maybe trying to get more extracurricular head positions.

Victoria Menendez (12:16.739)
Mm-hmm. Or like, yeah.

Victoria Menendez (12:22.031)
I know March we get some news, so I know we're waiting on that.

Nailah Smith (12:44.874)
So there was one that I got from the Exotic Animal Club. So I got that. And then there was another one that I was applying to. And I'm really excited for that because it has to deal with nutrition. And I wanted to make sure that at least get a head position role with at least one of the nutrition groups because I've always had an interest in nutrition, that and behavior. So I wanted to.

at least dip my toes into that as well. The deadline to apply, today's the 14th, I think we still got some days, so they're still receiving other people's applications, not, but I already sent mine in. So yeah, I think my goal is still pretty much to get more extracurricular head positions, because I know that looks really good when you do the matching for a...

What is it called when you want to specialize? When you have be an intern and stuff, they look at your resume, they look at all that you've done and whatnot. And I want to just show them that I've been really involved ever since like my first year in vet school.

Victoria Menendez (13:57.623)
That's great. Well, congrats on your position in the exotics and we'll hear back for the other position. Well, that's so good. What would you say is your biggest win in the past month?

Nailah Smith (14:07.382)
My biggest win for the past month. I'm going to say that so far that has been like all the exams that we've taken and the quizzes straight A's. Just A's. That's been my biggest win and hopefully with the exam that we took today for HISTO I also get an A on that. I feel pretty good about it so I hope to keep that up.

Victoria Menendez (14:34.701)
Yeah, so congrats, keep that going. I know you've been working really, really hard, so that's really good. I just wanna say thank you so much for being on the show. You can learn more about the other League of VetaHumanz at VetaHumanz.org If you liked this episode, please subscribe, rate, and share with your friends. And remember, use your powers for good.