Dear members,
As the only association of our kind, IVSA has a special role when it comes to representing the opinions and views of it's members – aka you! Although we are still vets-to-be, our views on current issues: education, one health, animal welfare, student wellness, etc. are not to be underestimated. And as IVSA has grown more and more professional in past years, partnering with more and more professional veterinary associations, such as WSAVA, WVA, FAO, FVE and OIE, these views are becoming more and more of a reality. Our professional partners now look to the ExCo, your chosen representatives, to communicate the opinions of veterinary students from all over the world on all kinds of topics, which of course is awesome, but also very difficult. There are so many of us from so many different backgrounds and of varying opinions. How can the ExCo know what to communicate to the world as our ‘general’ ideas?
With these questions in mind, the General Assembly at the 64th IVSA Congress in Romania, created the Working Group on Policy Statements and Position Papers. This enthusiastic group of hard workers will definitely help us with these issues! They will spend this year collecting and collating your opinions to create something that IVSA as a whole can agree on and communicate to the outside world. What a great way to show the strength that is IVSA’s size and diversity!
I'm therefore proud to say that the first Working Group has been formed and we are already hard at work with the first topics to tackle. Such a motivated team deserves a short introduction! The Working Group consists of the following members:
Hannah van Velzen (IVSA the Netherlands)
Aqil Jeenah (IVSA South Africa)
Mélissa De Lombaert (IVSA SAVMA)
Ondřej Vitula (IVSA Brno, Czech Republic)
Anna Hausmann (IVSA SAVMA)
Giorgos Polyzois (IVSA Thessaloniki, Greece)
- Topic Researcher and Author & SCOH Liason Officer
Isaac Kombe Silwamba (IVSA Zambia)
Caroline de Meyer (IVSA Ghent, Belgium)
I look forward to working hard together and bringing you more news soon!
Cheers,
Hannah van Velzen
Chairman 2015-2016
Working group on Policies
“Although we are still vets-to-be, our views on current issues: education, one health, animal welfare, student wellness, etc. are not to be underestimated.”
37
IVSA Journal/Fall, 2015