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FALLS SCHOOLS: High school senior getting a jump on veterinary career
Eighteen-year-old Rebecca F. Capton’s life hasn’t gone to the dogs yet, but she sure hopes it does.
The Niagara Falls High School senior loves animals and is doing everything she can this year — including an internship — to become a veterinarian some day.
“I’ve always wanted to be a vet ever since I was a little kid. I was about 5 or 6 when I first started thinking about it,” she said.
With college on the horizon, her dream has moved a couple steps toward reality.
Capton said she has been accepted to a state college, the Canton College for Technologies in northern New York to study veterinarian technologies for two years.
“I’m doing that to become a vet tech,” Capton said. “That’s like a nurse for animals. They do all the blood drawing and other jobs veterinarians need assistance with. That includes helping during surgery, and working with animals so they aren’t nervous when the doctor’s examining them.”
Capton said she wants to get that degree and then go out and get some experience in the field working with dogs, cats and other small animals for a while before she goes back to college to study and become a veterinarian.
“That (strategy) should help me get my foot in the door at veterinary school,” she said.
Playing another strong card to reach her goal, Capton said she also took on an internship over the past five months at a local animal hospital when she was afforded the opportunity through business teacher, Patricia Purdy, who runs her school’s internship program.
Capton said she spent about four hours every week at the Companion Care Animal Hospital, 2558 Niagara Falls Blvd., shadowing veterinarian Martin S. Downey and observing everything he did.
“I spent over 60 hours there,” said Capton, who finished her internship on March 1. “I liked it because I learned a lot about what it’s like to be a veterinarian. I actually got to see what happens behind the scene and how the doctor deals with all the different kinds of problems animals have.”
Capton also got to observe a number of surgeries, mostly spaying, neutering and declawing.
“That was pretty cool because I learned I can handle it,” she said. “It didn’t bother me watching (him operate). I also got to see how vet techs do.”
Why has she been so fixated on becoming a veterinarian for so long?
“I’ve always had pets at home — even hamsters — and I liked them all,” Capton said.
Currently, she said she has two dogs — Josie and Mimsy — and two cats — Pepper and Luna — and can’t imagine life without them.
“If there were no pets, my house would be a lot quieter. It would actually be weird and not as much fun,” Capton said. “I like them because they are so carefree. They don’t really care what anybody thinks and they are really nice to have around. They love you no matter what and I love their company. They are always there to greet you and the dogs get very excited when you come home because they’re so glad to see you.”
Downey said he’s been taking on high school interns since he opened shop in 2005. He said he has two including Capton from Niagara Falls High School this year and another from Orleans-Niagara Board of Cooperative Educational Services.
“My interns strictly do observations because we don’t want them to get bit since they are not vaccinated for rabies like my staff is,” he said, adding Capton has watched surgeries and X-rays and gone off on calls with him. “They generally shadow me everywhere. It gives them a good flavor of what it’s to be a veterinarian and what everyone does here. Rebecca is considering being a vet, but without a program like this, she really couldn’t get a good feel for what a true vet does.”
He also said Geraldine Carney, 17, is his other intern from the high school.
The internship program is funded with a federal Smaller Learning C Grant administered at the school by Joseph Bellonte.
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