"As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly" --Proverbs 26:11
Money matters are a permanent focus of concern for vet students. Most vet students accrue more student-loan debt than they can realistically pay back (treating Fluffy and Fido pays for shit, and don't even think about being all idealistic and trying to survive by working as a vet in an animal shelter...if the debt doesn't crush you, the burnout will).
While I did earn a modest salary for working on my chicken ovary research project, it was not even enough to pay rent for the summer. So I decided to start looking around for some other ways to make money.
To that end, I applied to a student job offered through the College of Vet Med: teaching assistant for gross anatomy.
Yes, like a dog returning to its vomit, I'm going to be helping first-years in the gross anatomy labs.
I am perfectly aware that gross anatomy was my weakest subject during the first year, the one that I struggled with the most, the one that brought me to tears more than once. But anyone who has had the privilege of stepping to the front of a classroom will be able to confirm that you learn as much or more when you teach. I experienced this when I was a teaching assistant for Physical Geology lo these many decades ago during my first stint in graduate school. I also told the gross anatomy instructor that I would have "considerable empathy" for the students struggling through the dissections.
He bought it, so I'm in. In fact, Monday will be my first day back in the lab. Thankfully, the topic is the thoracic limb. Fairly straightforward.
This isn't a real money-maker. There are 10 or 11 of us second-years appointed as TAs so we each only get three labs, perhaps a total of 10 hours for the term, not even $100 after taxes. But you never know where these kinds of things might lead.
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