WCS’s Aquatic Animal Health department offers four-week externships in aquatic medicine, surgery, and pathology for senior veterinary students from AVMA-accredited veterinary schools. The externships take place at the Aquatic Animal Health Center at the New York Aquarium. Students will also spend time within the Water Quality Laboratory and with Animal Care teams. Externships expose students to a variety of clinical cases including fish, elasmobranchs, penguins, and marine mammals. The students will observe all facets of aquatic health care, including preventive medicine, daily medical and surgical care, clinical rounds, anesthesia, quarantine procedures, water quality evaluation, clinical and anatomic pathology interpretation. During the rotation, students will be required to prepare and present a short project or topic to the Aquatic Health and Animal Care staff.
Requirements:
- Be in your Junior year of veterinary school applying for rotations in your senior year.
- Be eligible to work in the United States.
- Commit to 5 days per week for 4 weeks. Only in special cases can we accommodate students for shorter or longer periods.
- Show interest in aquatic, zoological, wildlife, or conservation medicine in your career.
- Provide own housing and transportation.
- Provide own pants/shorts, boots or work shoes; scrub tops will be provided.
- To fully participate in our program, once accepted, students must provide proof of health insurance, current negative TB test, and proof of current tetanus, rabies, and COVID-19 vaccination.*
Externs who successfully complete this position will be eligible to receive a stipend of $600 (to be paid at the end of the position). US work authorization is required for stipend eligibility
*Although not required as a condition of participation, we highly recommend participants in this program have an up-to-date TB test and current vacinnations for rabies, tetanus, and COVID. If documentation of receiving these tests/vaccinations is not provided, there will be limitations in participants' ability to fully take part in the experience, including not being able to have close contact or work with some species that we care for.