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Sarifa Lakhdhir, University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine Class of 2018, decided she wanted to study veterinary medicine when she was in Grade 11 in Calgary. “The way I chose veterinary medicine was very strange, I think,” she says. 

While many of her classmates grew up on farms or around plenty of pets, Lakhdhir’s only exposure to animals as a kid was dragging her parents on frequent trips to zoos. The family’s only pet, a cat, had died when she was a baby, “before I knew what was going on.”

Rather, it was her mutual love of making arts and crafts and doing math and physics that led to her teenage decision to become a small-animal surgeon. “I always wanted to do something with my hands. On top of that I wanted to be able to help people,” she says. “I figured surgery is one way to merge the two because you have to be creative in how you come up with solutions all the while having a goal to achieve.”  

With no interest in human medicine — “that grosses me out” — Lakhdhir volunteered for a couple of years at a veterinary clinic and took two years of biological sciences at UCalgary to get her prerequisites. She applied to UCVM not expecting to be accepted right away.

“I was shocked to get in with minimal animal experience,” she says. “I was very quiet, and I applied to UCVM because I wanted experience with the interview process.”

She started at UCVM in 2014, the youngest in the class, surrounded by some students with master's degrees and PhDs. “It was intimidating, but I found that my class was very supportive,” she says. “I enjoyed the last four years and I learned so much.”

Among her many achievements, Lakhdhir led the committee that organized a two-day symposium with an emphasis on production animal health in 2017, did an externship at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2017, and excelled on her northern rotation in 2018 with Dr. Susan Kutz, professor in the Department of Ecosystem and Public Health.

“Sarifa was a real pleasure to work with,” says Kutz. “She kept a positive attitude and a smile on her face despite a packed schedule and some very exhausting days. She saw the beauty in the land and the people and was eager to experience and learn in this environment.”

Lakhdhir loved working with small animals in Canada’s Northwest Territories and learning more about the Indigenous way with animals, including dogs that are left outside. “The view is that northern dog breeds should be outside because that provides them with the best quality of life,” she says. “Working with animals in a different cultural context in a different part of Canada was very interesting and eye-opening.”

She’s excited to start working with small animals in the U.S. at a one-year small animal rotating internship at Iowa State University that starts in June. As for her plans after that, she’s not quite as sure as she was in Grade 11.

“I may go into surgery or radiology. There are so many different options and I don’t know what to do anymore,” she says with a laugh. “I would love to be a professor and teach students but I will wait and see what happens after my residency. It will depend on what opportunities present themselves.”