Congratulations to the Class of 2024!
Congratulations to the Class of 2024 who received their degrees from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in its 74th Commencement Ceremony held at the Mondavi Center on May 24th. Among those graduating were 145 DVM students, 31 residents and 17 students in the Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine program.
Dean Mark Stetter provided opening remarks and welcomed all three groups celebrating their graduations. Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan gave a warm welcome to the graduates.
Dr. Jose Emilio Esteban, Undersecretary of Agriculture for the United States, served as guest speaker. Esteban received his veterinary degree from National Autonomous University of Mexico and migrated to the U.S. in 1985. He found his way to the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine where he obtained his masters in preventive veterinary medicine (MPVM) and a PhD in epidemiology.
He went on to work for the CDC in the Epidemic Intelligence Service and later served as chief scientist for the Food Safety and Inspection Service before his current role.
When Dr. Esteban was nominated to Congress for this role by President Biden, Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture, said that “Dr. Esteban has been on the front lines of protecting the public from foodborne illness for much of his career.”
Esteban shared the story of first coming to UC Davis to sell airtime to Spanish language radio stations to recruit more Hispanics. Dr. Bennie Osburn didn’t buy his sales pitch but introduced him to the MPVM program and convinced him to pursue it. Esteban was also Dr. Phil Kass’s first graduate student in epidemiology.
“The faculty in this university opened the world to me,” said Esteban. “I will never have enough time to repay what Davis did for me.”
‘I don’t want to deal with humans,’ Esteban thought when he first went into veterinary medicine. He wanted to be a Mexican James Herriot. Then he realized the animals have owners and he had to deal with them anyway.
“Now I’m dealing with politicians!” Esteban joked. But the one thing that keeps driving him is being trained as a problem solver.
“To me, that is the heart of a veterinarian. That’s what makes us different,” Esteban said. “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because you learn a lot more from those. Just don’t repeat them!”
He ended with advice to slow down and take time to breathe—no matter what stage of life or career.
“Enjoy the moment; you will never have it again.”
Dr. Joie Watson presented both Ally Delucia and Emily Lunt-Haseltine with the school medal, the highest honor for a graduating DVM student in recognition of outstanding academic and clinical performance.
Dr. Trey Callahan was chosen by the students as the faculty speaker. As a recent graduate (2023) of the oncology residency program, Callahan said he was incredibly honored to be chosen as this was his first year as an instructor.
“My relationship with this class is a unique one,” Callahan began. “We both started our time here together in 2020 at the height of a global pandemic. Over the last four years, I have seen you learn the foundations of medicine and surgery, volunteer your service at access-to-care clinics like Knight’s Landing and Covelo, conquer the 2nd and 3rd year Onco Blocks, all finally culminating in your 4th and final year – the CLINICAL year – where you completed the final challenge of putting it all together with skill and grace.”
He reminded the graduates that they are worthy of every good thing that comes their way, despite the inevitable moments of imposter syndrome and fear. Use a growth mindset and take lessons as opportunities to keep being the best version of yourself, he told them.
“This career can be difficult, so stay in touch, check in with each other. These are your people forever.”
Student speaker Molly Mettler talked about loss as an innate part of life and how every student on that stage was a loser. At the start of vet school, they had lost an entire year to in-person learning to the COVID pandemic and a sense of community they could have shaped earlier. They lost hours of sleep dedicating themselves to correctly interpreting a blood test. They’ve lost patients they have spent days caring for. Many have lost their own pets in the same walls of the hospital they had to return to the following day—along with family members, friends and mentors during the past four years.
“But from loss, I have seen my peers gain so much,” Mettler said. “We’ve gained understanding, compassion, and resilience to be better people. My wish for us is simple: to keep on being the compassionate, open-minded, resilient losers that we are, while remaining humble in service as we continually gain and grow in this profession.”
Before joining the academic side of veterinary medicine, Dean Stetter spent 15 years as a zoo/wildlife veterinarian at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Their mantra was to “make dreams come true” for their guests. Stetter still feels very involved in making dreams come true as he shared the personal story of Adrian Santoyo, one of the DVM graduates, at the closing of commencement.
Santoyo grew up in the Central Valley town of Delano as a first-generation college student and the son of Mexican migrant workers. His family had a small ranch with cattle, sheep, and horses. From a very young age, Santoyo enjoyed joining his dad at work at a local ranch.
When he was in kindergarten, Santoyo drew a picture of himself and a couple calves. The caption of the picture was “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor for the little cows”.
“This was not just a cute little boy drawing a stick figure picture,” Stetter said, “but rather a dedicated young man who had a dream.”
Santoyo went on to college at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo where he majored in Animal Science. During his first semester in animal science, one of the instructors in an introductory class asked those who were pre-vet to raise their hand. More than a hundred hands went up and the instructor then shared that only 10% were likely to get into veterinary school. When Santoyo shared that moment with his mom, she was very clear that he would be one of those 10% of students.
Next month, Santoyo will start his new job, returning as a veterinarian to the central valley. He will work in private practice with the hopes of potentially building a mixed animal practice in Delano. He will also be returning to his high school to meet with students and share his journey with the hopes they will be inspired by his story.
“I imagine he will be able to sprinkle a bit of pixie dust and magic with those young high school students and share that dreams really do come true,” Stetter said.