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Veterinary Students working in the Hospital.

Mentorship and Opportunities

P2P1 Guide Program 

The P2P1 Guide Program pairs a first-year practice group with two second year student veterinarians to discuss and discover life as a student at OVC throughout their first year, starting prior to first year orientation. The program offers students entering the program the opportunity to ask questions about classes, textbooks, study tips, useful resources at OVC, volunteering and extra-curricular activities. The P2P1 guides are recruited over the summer prior to their entry into Phase 2.

This program is not intended to be a counselling service. If you’d like services to talk about personal wellbeing, there are resources on campus to help including OVC Peer Helpers and professional counsellors through Counselling Services who can help you with serious life issues.

Veterinary Mentorship Program

Every second year, students in phases one and two have the opportunity to choose their main fields of interest, and are assigned veterinarians as a mentors. Mentors work in an area of interest that the student shares and lives within traveling distance to OVC for in-person exchange. Mentors volunteer their time to meet and talk to DVM students, sharing their knowledge and experiences and career modelling.

Mentorship helps student veterinarians build relationships and contacts within the veterinary community and explore veterinary careers of interest.

Mentor activities might include group chatting virtually on Facebook, Teams or Zoom, dinners at a local restaurant, outings to industry events or conferences, potlucks and/or volunteering at your mentor's clinic or place of work. Groups are open to new and creative ways to make connections.

Veterinary Students watching intently as Professor Demonstrates.

Summer Career Opportunities and Research Exploration Program (SCORE)

The Summer Career Opportunities and Research Exploration Program is designed to nurture undergraduate and DVM student interest in research and its influence and importance across careers and sectors. The program provides content on professional development and research skills to complement primary research and educational activities with individual faculty advisors. Students will have the opportunity to attend research and career workshops, engage in research writing skills, tour OVC and University of Guelph research facilities, and present their research to the OVC community.

To participate in the SCORE Program, students must conduct research with an OVC faculty member during the summer semester. Students interested in summer research studentships and the SCORE Program must apply to positions available on Experience Guelph during the Winter Semester. For questions regarding summer research studentships and SCORE eligibility, please contact ovc.experiential@uoguelph.ca.

Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program (BIVSP)

The Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program (BIVSP) provides veterinary medicine students with research opportunities. OVC has applied to participate in this program, funded in part by BIVSP. If accepted, two positions will be available for Summer 2025, with one position open to a visiting veterinary student. Applications and a list of available faculty mentors will be listed in January 2025. 

Research must be completed between May and August 2025 over 14.2 weeks. Students will receive an hourly rate of $17.50 for a maximum total of 497 hours. BIVSP students will present their research at the Veterinary Scholars Symposium (August 7-9, 2025, in Spokane, WA), with funding provided by BIVSP and OVC. For more information on the BIVSP and participating institutions, please visit the VSP webpage. 

Eligibility 

  • First or second-year veterinary student 
  • Eligible to work in Canada (Canadian citizen or permanent resident) 
  • Preference will be given to students with no prior research experience 

Application Requirements 

Students need to complete an application form provided via email. Please email ovc.experiential@uoguelph.ca to express your interest in applying to the BIVSP Program. 

To complete the application, students will need the following: 

  • Cover letter 
  • Resume 
  • Unofficial transcript 

International Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars

Students selected as Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars by their home institution who are interested in conducting research at the Ontario Veterinary College as their North American Host Institution are to contact ovc.experiential@uoguelph.ca and include their research interests and/or preferred faculty mentors (click here to explore faculty mentors by department).