“After a month I knew Alaska was going to be home,” said Liz Millman. “It’s pretty incredible to be graduating vet school and going back to Alaska to continue caring for these dogs and building a career.”
The first class of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks/Colorado State University 2+2 veterinary program are graduating this May. The trailblazing group of 10 students attended the first two years of coursework at UAF and finished their two years of clinical training at CSU.
Remote villages in southwest Alaska will receive animal care assistance through a private grant announced by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A new grant from PetSmart Charities will allow students from CSU and the University of Alaska Fairbanks to assist with veterinary care in remote communities.
Josh Link, a Pennsylvania native, found his home in Alaska's veterinary community. Link will be one of the first to graduate from a 2+2 program that connects the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and the CSU College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences in May.
Grants awarded so far in 2018 include: $450,000 to Colorado State University, which will partner with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to provide veterinary access in rural Alaskan communities and give hands-on training to 30 veterinary students.
Molly Murphy teaches at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Yukon Quest head veterinarian Nina Hansen is a postdoctoral fellow there.
“We do look for (frostbite),” head veterinarian Dr. Cristina “Nina” Hansen said. “At these temperatures, I would expect to see some of it."