Community Education Programs
The Penn Vet Shelter Medicine Program places an emphasis on community and humane education as a major part of sheltering curriculum developed for our veterinary students. By providing training for humane educators, our students, the community, and the shelter medicine world, the program can make a global impact on animal welfare.
- Dr. Watson, Director of the Shelter Medicine Program, has been working with Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Perelman School of Medicine to expand the Pipeline Program, which has since 1998 provided West Philadelphia high school students the chance to deeply engage in science.
- The Pipeline Program goes beyond textbook lessons to see how practicing researchers and clinicians—as well as undergraduate and graduate students at Penn—use science to probe medical mysteries and find answers that have an impact on societal health.
- This school year, the program has added a 12th-grade curriculum focused on veterinary medicine, which Watson is leading with Penn Vet students. The high school students will explore commonalities between human and animal medicine and also focus on humane education, including lessons on animal welfare, ethics, and empathy. The program ends with a field trip to New Bolton Center headed by Dr. Ray Sweeney and the large animal team.
Lea School Outreach
- The Netter Center also partners with Penn Vet and the Lea School to provide Middle School Veterinary Outreach. Senior Penn Vet Shelter Rotation students create lessons to get students interested in veterinary medicine and science.
Bridging the Gaps