PVMA Keystone Veterinarian Fall 2021 - 16

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How Penn Vet Approaches Wellness
Aid & Scholarships, Penn
Vet pursues a four-pronged
approach in assisting their
students to understand and
manage debt: presentations
on budgeting and handling
loan repayments after
graduation, partnerships
with the University's
Financial Wellness Center
and other non-profit
companies to provide
financial literacy webinars,
offering grants and scholarships, and
encouraging students to pursue workstudy
scenarios allowing them to earn
income for living expenses. Throughout
the year, students are highly encouraged
to meet with a Penn Vet financial
aid director prior to the start of each
academic year. Penn Vet's third-year
students are offered their Financial
Wellness webinar, which addresses
options for student debt repayment, and
fourth-year students undergo one-onone
exit interviews to discuss repayment
loan strategies. To lessen the financial
burden, Penn Vet offers need-based grant
funding, in addition to over $1 million
in scholarships. Pennsylvania-resident
students also receive a four-year state
grant subsidy to reduce tuition.
With distinctive vision, Dean Hoffman
instituted the pilot program of a dual
degree: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine/
Masters in Social Work (VMD/MSW). This
further expands the career opportunities
for Penn Vet students by uniquely
preparing them to understand the
relationships between humans, their pets,
and livestock, and to fill the professional
need in government agencies addressing
human and animal welfare, disaster
relief organizations, professional and
academic settings which directly serve
the veterinary profession, and healthcare
organizations where the human animal
bond is a critical element in the welfare of
patients, such as hospices and shelters.
16 | Keystone Veterinarian
As part of continually addressing wellness,
student input must be at the center of
all these resources. Penn Vet's Office
for Students worked with the Student
American Veterinary Medical Association
(SAVMA) to create a SAVMA Board
Position, the Wellness Chair. That has
now increased to two Wellness Chairs!
Bryant works closely with the SAVMA
Wellness Chairs to help them develop
programming. Examples include a faculty/
student talent show, panels that include
veterinary professionals speaking on
work/life balance, and " It's Ok, " modeled
after the Texas A&M program where
the faculty and staff comprise the panel
which talks about their own mental
health struggles. Penn Vet also provides
the quarterly program " You Said/
We Did, " which is a forum for clinical
students to give feedback to the faculty
and administration ( " You Said " ), and
accountable response action as follow-up
to the feedback ( " We Did " ).
In February, Penn Vet created the position
for a Diversity and Inclusion Officer, so
the future of this department will grow.
CAPS features the " I Care " program,
which guides students, faculty, and staff
on how to interact with a student they
feel is struggling, how to get them help
or where they need to go. The Embedded
Counselor, Heather Frost, leads small
interactive workshops (virtually last year).
The University has six cultural centers that
students have access to (https://home.
vpul.upenn.edu/cultural-centers).
While Bryant may always ask
herself, " Is it enough?, " she
hopes the students find
community through these
programs. " We have the
best students: my hope is to
continually expand on and
improve what we can for our
students, not only so they can
have a great experience here,
but also for them to take tools
that they hopefully learned at
school into their future career. "
Mary A Bryant, VMD, graduated from
The University of Pennsylvania School
of Veterinary Medicine in 1995. After
graduation, she worked at a small animal
practice in Wilmington, DE for 9 years.
Mary was very involved in the DVMA,
and awarded DVMA's Veterinarian of
the Year Award in 2000. In 2004, she
joined Merial, serving as a technical
services veterinarian for 7 years, and
was promoted to the Northeast Regional
Director of the Veterinary Services Team
for the next 4 years. In 2015, Mary
joined Penn Vet as Executive Director
for the Office for Students, becoming
the Assistant Dean of Students and
Admissions in 2017. Mary was elected
to represent DE on the AVMA House of
Delegates and served as the youngest
woman ever in the House. She was
elected PVMA President in 2007 and
then served as the AVMA Delegate
for Pennsylvania from 2008-2014. Dr.
Bryant received the PVMA Distinguished
Veterinary Service Award in 2014. She
lives in Chester County with her husband,
a neurobiologist, and their two Welsh
Springer Spaniels.
https://home.vpul.upenn.edu/cultural-centers https://home.vpul.upenn.edu/cultural-centers
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