Dr. Kierra Coleman DMV's Journey

My journey to becoming a veterinarian was not an easy one. Growing up, I always knew I loved animals, but I had never seen a veterinarian before, especially one that looked like me. I did not have a mentor growing up or anyone in the profession to show me the ropes and guide me to my destiny. But nevertheless, I still managed to accomplish my goals and learned how to climb the veterinary ladder through trial and error. After graduating from Louisiana Tech University in Spring 2017, I applied for the first time to LSU School of Veterinary Medicine and was not accepted. Needless to say, I was devastated and heartbroken. I felt I had worked so hard to get to the next step, only for the door to be closed in my face. But eventually, I picked myself up, completed an internship and added more experiences and class work to my resume and application to make myself a more competitive candidate. Since there are only 32 vet schools in the entire country, getting into one is very hard because there are hundreds if not thousands of applicants each year and each class only takes about 120 students. By the grace of God, the second time I applied I was accepted! I was ecstatic and ready to start my adventure into my new career, but the excitement was short lived. Once the realization of the intense workload hit, I was severely overwhelmed and stressed. I cried often and there were severely days where I wanted to quit. There were several periods of time where I felt like I could barely keep my head above water and my grades were starting to suffer. I even remember the very first semester of school, I had an anxiety attack after failing an exam and immediately went to the Student Affairs office to get a withdrawal slip. I was ready to drop-out and call it quits. I doubted myself and God more than I should have and would often feel like I didn't belong, that I wasn't good enough to be there, that I wouldn't make it and that I had probably bitten off more than I could chew with this profession. But in that moment of filling out the withdrawal form, I had to think back to my "why". Why did I choose this? Why am I here? Why should I stay here and fight for what I've always dreamed of? And the answer was simple. Because God did not bring me this far to leave me. He did not bless me with the opportunity to be here, only 1 of 3 African American students in a class of 114, just to watch me fail. Plus, if I quit now, it would be a slap in the face to everybody that believed in me and sacrificed for me to be here. Not to mention, I wanted to make my late grandmother (Evoria) proud because she believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. While doing the community outreach through the organization and visiting the local elementary, middle and high schools in Baton Rouge, I also grew to learn that this journey I'm on is not just about me. It's bigger than me! Those kids were just like me and had never seen a veterinarian before, let alone a black female veterinarian. They were encouraged by my struggle and found a sense of hope to know that they too could do this very same thing! Little did they know, they had encouraged me also. They, along with all the other factors, encouraged me to stay in school and fight for what was mine. For myself and for everyone connected to me. Now, here I stand as a first-generation college graduate and first doctor of my family. All because God was on my side, and I didn't give up.

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Inspiration

There were three major things that inspired me to be a veterinarian:

1. My love for animals

2. As I grew older, my curiosity for how they lived, moved, walked, behaved, interacted with one another and bonded with humans, feed my hunger of wanting to study them and know more and more about them. I was always fascinated by the anatomy, psychology and physiology of it all.

3. Growing up in low income areas in predominately black neighborhoods, I always saw the same two dynamics with my community: 1) people that were terrified of dogs and wanted nothing to do with them or 2) people who loved animals but did not know how to properly care for them; not because they were bad people but because they didn't know any better. There has also been a disparaging difference between the access of knowledge and resources to white and black communities. Where I grew up, no one took their animals to the vet because it either cost too much, they had no transportation to get to the vet or they were treated poorly when they did go. So everyone did the best they could and used house hold remedies that had been passed down from generation to generation, but not actually proven to work from a medical stand point. For instance feeding table scraps or pouring motor oil on your pet to treat mange was a common practice that I saw but neither technique is good for your pet! Its actually very harmful. But like the bible says, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. And the people who were afraid of animals, were usually only afraid due to passed down generational fear and trauma; which in the long run points back to slavery. But I wanted to bridge the gap for and my community. I wanted to gain the knowledge and access to resources to come back and share it with my people. I want to educate them on how to properly care for their pets and show others that there is nothing to be afraid of. And I wanted to do it with dignity and respect. I know with most races of people, whether black or white, humans are more naturally prone to listen to and trust someone that looks like them, rather than someone who doesn’t. So I always wanted to be that beacon of light for my community.