In July 2017, CityU's CVMLS offered a 10-day Summer School programme to bring an inspirational experience to 28 secondary school students who aspire to becoming veterinarians in Hong Kong. Last year CityU sent 14 students to Cornell University to experience their 3-week programme. This year we decided to run the programme locally modelled on the Cornell experience.

This 10-day Summer School programme serves as a means of providing a valuable opportunity for students to find out more about veterinary studies in general, the veterinary programme at CityU and what to expect as a veterinarian. For some students these programmes will reinforce their desire to become vets, but just as importantly, the programme can also demonstrate that being a vet is hard demanding work and that not everyone is suited to becoming a vet.

The programme included a wide range of activities taught using lectures, laboratory sessions, practical sessions and workshops delivered on and off-campus, all over Hong Kong. For example, the students were able to visit a chicken and pig farm, a riding school, our aquaculture centre at Sha Tau Kok. On-campus teaching included a visit to the veterinary diagnostic laboratory, dog handling sessions conducted by Animals Asia. There were also biomedical sessions that focused on food safety and learning to conduct bacterial counts on meat.