Dr. Hayley Weston Murphy, a doctor of veterinarian medicine and the Head Veterinarian at the Franklin Park Zoo met with Jessica, a seventh grader who participates in Girls Get Connected programs and attends Mother Caroline Academy in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Jessica and some of her classmates interviewed Dr. Murphy to find out what it takes to become a veterinarian. They found out it takes a lot.

Getting in the vet school is harder than getting into medical school and once you are accepted, the studies are more challenging. A medical doctor only has to learn about one species — the human species. A veterinarian has to learn about many species. And, if you are a zoo vet, you have to learn about animals — both big and small — from all over the world.

Dr. Murphy told the girls that she became a veterinary technician after college so she could learn more about animals and then she went to Cornell School of Veterinarian Medicine. After earning her Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine degree, she completed some post-doctoral work, studying tigers. Dr. Murphy is an adjunct professor at Tufts Veterinarian School of Medicine where she teaches a class on primate medicine. Dr. Murphy’s special interests are are running the National Gorilla Cardiac Database and studying retrovirus research in non-human primates in zoos.

Dr. Murphy told Jessica that she should take science and math classes throughout high school and college and volunteer and work at animal clinics and shelters while she is in high school and college. She also told Jessica that 75 percent of the students in vet schools are women.

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