Connecting the College Community: A Q&A With the Heads of NC State’s Student American Veterinary Medical Association

The new academic year is almost here, and after purchasing school supplies, reviewing class schedules and completing orientation, first-year students are diving into a core part of the student experience: signing up for clubs.

Their first stop will be SAVMA, or the Student American Veterinary Medical Association, which serves as the umbrella organization for clubs across the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. Students must be SAVMA members to join any of the college’s other two dozen organizations.

SAVMA is the CVM’s largest student-led group, with 19 board members and over 90% participation across all four classes. It introduces students to the professional opportunities and benefits offered through the national American Veterinary Medical Association, a vocational veterinary advocacy society representing over 100,000 veterinarians nationwide.

Additionally, SAVMA hosts college-wide events throughout the year to promote the professional and social development of future veterinarians and connect our trainees with peers, alumni and the local community.

Expanding these networking and stewardship opportunities are core goals for SAVMA’s 2024-2025 president, third-year student Max Seda, and president-elect, second-year student Robin Gallagher. As the new school year begins, Seda and Gallagher encourage their peers to get involved around campus.

How does SAVMA add to our college community?

Max Seda: Our main goal is to introduce students to what SAVMA and the AVMA overall can do for them. The national chapters of these organizations host annual conferences, the AVMA Conference and the SAVMA Symposium. The AVMA in general offers a lot of support and community: It maintains career and externship locators, provides student grants, publishes its own research journal, advocates for the profession politically and offers liability insurance to students and veterinarians.

NC State’s SAVMA chapter hosts two big annual events, a spring formal and a Halloween party, and we sprinkle in smaller wellness and inclusion events throughout the year, like Smoothie Days and the “What’s the Diversi-TEA” series. Our two Open House coordinators also work directly with college administration to put together the annual Open House in March.

We organize all the different CVM clubs on campus, too. Our board helps support them and educate students about them.

Robin Gallagher: We want to encourage students to use the externships and grant opportunities that are available to them through the AVMA while they’re in school, too. The AVMA also hosts financial responsibility discussions talking about how to deal with finances and debt and how to invest during your first few years in the field. I think that, as a student, having access to those discussions and materials is really important.

In NC State’s SAVMA, we hope students take advantage of the networking opportunities available within our clubs and their events.

What’s new with SAVMA this year?

MS: The first week of school, we’re hosting “We Are SAVMA” week, a new way to show students what SAVMA is. We’ll be recruiting some of the clubs to host breakfasts and snack breaks throughout the week to introduce themselves to the incoming class before the club fair at the end of that week.

We’re also preparing for NC State to host the 2026 SAVMA Symposium, and we’re looking to recruit new members to lead that preparation. It’s a student-run event hosted by a different vet school every year, and there will be wet labs, exhibit halls, lectures, social events and meetings for delegates to attend. Hosting it is a great opportunity for our students to learn new leadership and organizational skills, and I’m very excited to put it together.

RG: Something really incredible about us hosting the 2026 symposium is that usually a lot of students aren’t able to attend these national events, based on the cost of flights and hotel rooms. By hosting the symposium here, we’re giving the opportunity for our student body to fully access all of these wonderful events that usually only SAVMA’s executive board gets to attend.

MS: Next spring, we’re also looking to bring back the Dog Days 5K fundraiser that we used to hold before the COVID pandemic. Our class representatives put it on, and it’s a good opportunity to run around with your dogs and get some exercise.

How has joining SAVMA, and eventually leading the organization, enriched your experience at the CVM?

MS: It’s very much inspired me to help uplift other students. I hadn’t led an organization before running for SAVMA president — I kind of just jumped off the deep end. It’s provided me a lot of value in terms of gaining leadership skills, and I’ve become more passionate about encouraging those traits in other students. And that’s kind of my main goal with everything that I want to do for SAVMA. I want to really encourage students to be leaders in any aspect on campus, because there’s so much you can learn that you aren’t going to find while studying a textbook, but instead by actively being involved on a team and holding leadership positions. You can be a leader and a student at the same time.

RG: As a student in SAVMA, I started to see the value of developing my leadership skills and connections. Now as a SAVMA executive, I’d say the values are connection, communication and building character. There are so many different perspectives in the veterinary space, and it’s important to make sure we are expanding our network and building our leadership in areas that aren’t necessarily our strengths. Like Max said, it’s helpful to get out of your comfort zone, work on those things that you might not necessarily be good at and build those connections through communication so you’ll grow as a professional.

How can students get involved?

MS: Our incoming first years will get an email from the national SAVMA organization before they enter school with their SAVMA IDs and information on how to sign up and pay their dues. Part of that goes to our national chapter, and part of it goes back to us as local dues. Once you pay your dues, then you’re a member! There are many different ways to be involved. You can join clubs, volunteer at events or take on an officer role in a club or on the student government.

RG: We’re also looking to fill two positions this fall, our treasurer-elect and our junior merchandise representative, and we’ll be holding elections for those positions shortly after the semester starts.