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John Valdevieso from UPLB is the first Philippine representative in the prestigious global Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program

Small town beginnings, Ivy League dreams: A UPLB’s stint at Cornell University

by dotdailydose October 28, 2024, 12:53 PM 103 Views 113 Comments

John Valdevieso is the first representative from the Philippines to partake in the prestigious Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program. His advocacy is focused on food security and child nutrition.

Everyone dreams of going to an Ivy League school. After all, it represents a high caliber of academic standards, a passion for excellence, and a desire for the best in life.

But knowing that it has the most selective schools in the world, with an average acceptance rate of just 3%, attending an Ivy League school remains to be just a dream to many.

This is not the case, however, for John Valdevieso, a 22-year-old BS Veterinary Studies student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. John attended Cornell University in New York State for a 12-week program under the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Program.

The program, created in 1989 in the US with the mission to expose veterinary students in their fourth year of veterinary school to biomedical research and career opportunities in academia, government, and related industry, was expanded in 2023 as a pilot to include the Philippines and Japan in their country roster. In more than 30 years, the program has reached more than 5,000 students from North America, Europe, and Asia.

John is the first representative from the Philippines to partake in the prestigious program and brought his advocacy on food security and child nutrition with him. “Many people think that veterinary is all about clinical practice for companion animals, but little do they know that it concerns the food we eat and the public health in general,” shares John. “As my focus of study is child nutrition, I was engaged mainly in milk production. I spent most of my time in the commercial dairy farm where they had rotating porters. We would enroll 60 cows each time, and every cow will have 3 minutes milking time which is very efficient compared to the normal standard. This is the kind of technology I wish we could bring to our local farmers.”

As part of the program, scholars conduct hypothesis research projects developed jointly with their assigned mentor and present them at the National Veterinary Scholars Symposium (NVSS). The NVSS is a premier annual scientific colloquium showcasing research accomplishments by veterinary students completing summer research internships. Aside from poster presentations, the symposium conducts keynote speaker sessions on scientific and career-related topics.

Apart from learning new skills, John was also introduced to a world of new possibilities as he went on his program at Cornell University. “I came from the province, so my upbringing was: go to school, find a job, then help your community. This experience opened my eyes to the many opportunities around the world, and helped me realize that I can help as many people if I expose myself to different ways of learning,” said John.

Dr. Melvin Cassion, Customer Experience Lead for Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health Philippines, expressed his appreciation for the brand’s first global scholar grant. “We’re deeply honored to have brought one of our Iskolar ng Bayan to such a prestigious university like Cornell. As Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health continues to strengthen the practice of veterinary medicine in the country, we hope to bring more Filipino scholars abroad to expand their learning and introduce to us new and advanced technologies that will help develop the human and animal health correlation.”

This scholar’s program is just one of Boehringer Ingelheim’s initiatives that demonstrate our commitment to supporting veterinarians in improving access to veterinary care. Educational resource and training programs such as the recent 8^th Companion Animals Technical Forum, among others, are regularly conducted. In 2023, Boehringer Ingelheim Philippines also launched the Animal Health Hub, a free online learning portal designed for veterinarians to have easy access to various learning modules.

To know more about Boehringer Ingelheim’s The Veterinary Scholars Program, visit its official website: veterinaryscholars.boehringer-ingelheim.com.