Hello from Mississippi State,

Our first major meeting (outside of recruitment meetings) was hosted last Wednesday with the topic dealing with student loan repayment options. We had a speaker from Graduate Leverage, a company specializing in advising professional/graduate students on student loan repayment, to speak about consolidation options, loan forgiveness programs, and other repayment options. At the beginning of the meeting we showed new members via a projector and laptop how to find and access the VBMA website as well as how to register and navigate the forums. We push the VBMA website as a major benefit for joining the club, so we wanted to make sure everyone knew about it and could register for it easily. We also unveiled a new business card design for the club, our chapter offers personalized business cards as a fundraiser for the club and a free benefit for freshmen who signup for a 4-year membership. The Graduate Leverage speaker did a fantastic job of demystifying student loan repayment and answered several students questions about their personal situations. I had several classmates who originally were not interested in VBMA come to this meeting to learn about student loan repayment and change their minds about the club, so I think the speaker topic was a great success for late recruitment.

I hope the rest of the Southern chapters are having a great semester of spreading the word about business in veterinary medicine!

Grant Ramsey
Class of 2012
Mississippi State University
VBMA Chapter President