SAVMA Symposium draws 700 veterinary students to California
By Christine Won
The 2025 Student AVMA (SAVMA) Symposium returned to the University of California-Davis (UC-Davis), for the first time since 2011, bringing together about 700 students and 250 exhibitors March 21–22, according to organizers.
Across two days, the symposium featured about 80 lectures and 22 wet labs, as well as several competitions and day trips to The Marine Mammal Center, the San Francisco Zoo, and more.
In honor of Davis, California, being known as a “cow town,” this year’s symposium theme was “Just Be Legen-Dairy,” said 2025 SAVMA Symposium General Managers Haley Konoval and Morgan Lunn, both second-year students at the UC-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.
“One of the greatest parts of SAVMA Symposium each year is that students from around the world have the opportunity to come together and form connections that otherwise might not have been possible,” Konoval and Lunn told AVMA News. “It is so special to see everyone reconnect each year.”
Symposium highlights
Organizers said they made it a priority to provide travel grants to as many students as possible.
“We recognized that the trip out to California was a significant one for the majority of the attendees, so we wanted to do everything that we could to minimize these travel costs,” organizers said.
With sponsorships, SAVMA was able to provide $500 travel grants to more than 100 students, a notable increase from about 20 awarded, on average, in past years.
Also this year, more wet labs focused on large animals, with 11 total being offered on topics ranging from ruminant parasitology to equine diagnostic imaging.
Organizers also highlighted a mock deployment laboratory led by the California Veterinary Emergency Team alongside multiple local response agencies. They said volunteers from the fire department, animal disaster groups, and animal control offered interactive stations where students were able to learn necessary skills for emergencies, such as coordinating with first responders and triaging animals in the field.
At the Legen-Dairy Gala on the second evening, Temple Grandin, PhD, world-renowned advocate for autism and the humane treatment of animals, gave the keynote on the importance of recognizing how animals think and interact with their surroundings. Veterinarian-comedian Dr. Sarah Boston was the other keynote.
In an April 3 email after the event, Dr. Mark Stetter, dean of the UC-Davis veterinary school, said, “UC Davis students make me proud every day, but rarely is their excellence on public display as it was during the recent Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA) Symposium.”
Governance and awards
The SAVMA Executive Board and House of Delegates (SAVMA HOD) met, along with chapter presidents.
Most notably, the SAVMA HOD formally terminated its partnership with the International Veterinary Students Association (IVSA).
The SAVMA HOD moved “to withdraw from the current partnership with IVSA with the intent of pursuing relationships with an alternate organization(s) that prioritizes and promotes international involvement for veterinary students with respect to their education, professional development, and overall wellbeing,” and the motion passed, according to an April 3 press release.
Other actions taken at the March SAVMA HOD meeting include:
- Rejecting an amendment to the SAVMA Bylaws to remove the sections that allow chapters to submit a letter of extenuating circumstances to the SAVMA Executive Board to retain if they had not met the membership requirements for voting privileges.
- Rejecting another amendment to the SAVMA Bylaws to add “regardless of graduation status” to Article VI, Section 3, that would allow delegates who would graduate prior to their term ending to serve in SAVMA officer positions.
At the gala on March 22, incoming SAVMA President Kyle Jorel Frett handed out SAVMies to acknowledge chapter efforts. The 2025 winners of the SAVMies were:
- Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine for Outstanding Symposium Attendance 2025
- Midwestern University for Outstanding ALL for Students Event 2024
- St. George’s University for Outstanding Chapter Membership 2024
Officers
The following officers were installed to the 2025-26 SAVMA Executive Board: Kyle Jorel Frett, Tuskegee University, president; Josie Peterson, Iowa State University, secretary; Anna Jones, North Carolina State University, treasurer; Maya Kelly, University of Florida, international exchange officer; Kyle Barron, Purdue University, communications and public relations officer; Jamie Burke, University of Pennsylvania, Vet Gazette editor-in-chief; Alexa Wing, Colorado State University, global public health officer; Kayla Forlenza, University of Missouri, veterinary economics officer; Alyssa Heath, Mississippi State University, cultural outreach officer; Rebecca Michelin, University of Prince Edward Island, wellbeing officer; and Alysia Cannon, Louisiana State University, chapter president representative
Additionally, the SAVMA HOD elected the following officers: Spencer Stelly, Louisiana State University, president-elect; James Grein, Oklahoma State University, secretary-elect; Caroline Berge, University of Wisconsin, treasurer-elect; Youssef Tantawy, University of Glasgow, international exchange officer-elect; and McKenzie Weigel, Iowa State University, communications and public relations officer-elect.
The 2026 SAVMA Symposium is scheduled for March 12–15, 2026, at North Carolina State University.