Endowed scholarship supports veterinarians who practice in rural areas

Liz Solters describes veterinarians as being “extremely important” to her.

“Other than my friends, my veterinarian is my most important person because he takes care of my children,” said Solters, who is deeply committed to rescuing dogs and finding homes for them. 

Supporting the development of future veterinarians is also important to Solters, as she has shown by endowing the Sydney and Fran Memorial Veterinary Scholarship at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

“People who are in a position to help, need to help,” Solters said of funding the scholarship, which has been awarded to veterinary student Kelli Gillespie for a second consecutive academic year.  

“I'm super grateful for this scholarship,” said Gillespie, who is on the food animal track in her veterinary studies. “I am so grateful for the opportunity to represent the scholarship. It’s helping me pursue my passions and further my education. The ultimate goal, why I'm here, is to give back to my community.”

The scholarship is named after the first two dogs Solters owned as an adult. Solters’ involvement with the veterinary college goes back more than 30 years, when the scholarship’s namesakes were being treated at the veterinary college. 

“I had those two together, Fran and Sydney, and they traveled the world with me,” said Solters, who lives in Surry County, North Carolina, after retiring from a military career.  “Actually, Sydney was the first dog that was just mine, not my parents’ dog, but my dog. And then Fran came along, so it was the three of us for a long time.”

Fran’s stay at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in the 1990s was particularly enlightening for Solters and led her to a huge decision about giving to veterinary education. 

“I was so impressed with everyone and with the facility, and the fact that a veterinary student called me every night to tell me how Fran was doing,” Solters said. “I have had quite a few experiences with the vet school. I've had several dogs up there. Because I have no close family, I've always known that my estate needed to go somewhere. So a long time ago, I put in my will that the vet school at Virginia Tech gets everything.”

While the Sydney and Fran scholarship is named for two dogs, and Solters currently owns six dogs, its present recipient is focusing on food animal veterinary medicine. But Gillespie is very much fulfilling the purpose of the scholarship with her career choices and aspirations. 

“I am in a small town and I am surrounded by rather large rural areas, and that's really the gist of the scholarship.,” said Solters. “It's for people who intend to practice in a small town or rural location. We need more vets serving rural areas. “

And that’s exactly what Gillespie is studying to be.

Gillespie did not grow up on a farm or in close contact with agriculture in suburban Richmond, and she once aspired to be a veterinarian taking care of dogs and cats. But her interests turned to agriculture and rural veterinary medicine through her dual-degree undergraduate studies in animal science and dairy science in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech and now in her fourth year on the food animal track at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

“I really feel a passion for production medicine for those food animals and helping provide secure and safe food for our society as well as supporting people who do that because I think our agriculture communities tend to be underserved,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie first received the Sydney and Fran scholarship in her third year at veterinary school and it has been renewed for her fourth and final year. 

This scholarship is awarded to one third-year student in the veterinary college who has demonstrated financial need. The scholarship will be renewable through graduation if the recipient remains in good academic standing. Preference for selection will be given to a student who intends to practice in a small town or rural area upon graduation and work with a rescue group in that area, as demonstrated through an application process administered by the college. 

The scholarship has helped Gillespie afford externships this year that she might not have had the opportunity for otherwise, such as recently working in mixed-animal veterinary care in rural Texas, where she treated dogs and cats in addition to the region’s abundant livestock.

She has plans to work with livestock in Pennsylvania and in Ireland later this year, before graduating with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in May. 

“I'm trying to use clinics to kind of figure out exactly what I want to do, but in general, I do want to go into food animal private practice,” Gillespie said. “My ideal scenario would be working at a place that has an ambulatory service as well as a haul-in facility, to be able to do preventive medicine as well as responsive medicine.”

Sponsoring the studies of a soon-to-be veterinarian is deeply meaningful for Solters. 

“I toyed with various ideas of things that I could do for the school, like buying equipment,” Solters said. “But I thought that a scholarship was a much better investment.”