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 Student Research Involvement
 As developing scientists, students are encouraged to actively engage and participate in research during their tenure at WesternU-CVM. This participation will manifest differently in students, depending on their interests, career goals and motivations; examples of this participation include the Western University Student Summer Research Program, Student Technology and Research Symposium (STARS), Junior Presentations , Research Rotation, and Independent Research with Thesis. Faculty are available to students as research project coordinators and mentors to help develop the drive toward scientific inquiry in all veterinary graduates.
 Each student is required to make an oral presentation of a case, series of cases, research project, or a herd/flock problem with which they have been involved during Phase I and/or Phase II of the curriculum. Students, in preparing their case presentations, carry out a thorough literature search and evaluate the strengths of relevant published materials, as it may apply to their case(s). Presentations are evaluated by faculty and students are encouraged to be both critical and analytical in their presentations.
CVM 7564 Research Rotation (Optional) (4 credits) - Semester 5 & 6 This rotation provides students with a research experience. The student will learn principles of experimental design and good laboratory practices. Early in the rotation, the student will develop a specific hypothesis and design a protocol to test the hypothesis. The student will maintain a laboratory notebook, documenting the procedures and assays that are performed on a daily basis, as well as, define and explain the scientific questions that each assay is addressing and the underlying mechanisms by which the assays operate. Depending upon the rotation site, the student may participate in laboratory meetings, seminars, and/or journal clubs. At the end of the rotatio n, the student will prepare a one page summary of their research project, which will be written in abstract form that contains both a title and an author(s) section, with the body of the abstract addressing the background, objectives, methods, results, and conclusions of the project. Additionally, a four to five-page technical summary of the research project will be prepared. This document should be written in manuscript format, including an abstract (same as above), introduction, methods, results, and conclusions/discussion sections.
CVM 8999 Independent Research with Thesis (Optional) (1 - 4 credits) - Semester 7 & 8  Students are encouraged to conduct scholarly research and submit a thesis, during their four-year curriculum. The thesis should explore an original question relating to the basic sciences, a clinical problem, or a public or environmental health issue involving veterinary medicine. Students are supervised by faculty members from the CVM or jointly by faculty from other institutions. Students who complete a thesis will be acknowledged at graduation, and their achievements recorded in their permanent academic records.
Western University Student Summer Research Program.  In academic year 2007-2008, 15 CVM students successfully competed for the award. In this program, students write a grant application (with faculty advisor assistance). The application must be in the student's own words. Successful applicants are competitively awarded a stipend of $2,000 to conduct the research, during the year of the award. CVM sophomore students are expected to present their research results in the Third Year Student Presentation Course, CVM 7090. By presenting in CVM 7090, the student's research becomes part of the informational content of this course. This mechanism is one way that research has a direct impact on our professional teaching program and enhances the richness of the educational environment.
Morris Animal Foundation Veterinary Student Scholar GrantsIn addition to the Western University Student Summer Research Program, our student routinely compete for Morris Animal Foundation Veterinary Student Scholar Grants, which may support up to an additional 6 students/ year in summer research projects.  Student Technology and Research Symposium (STARS)This is an all day seminar devoted to student oral presentations of the research that they conducted over the summer. Each student writes an abstract on their research and gives a 15 minute oral presentation in front of faculty, administration, visitors, and fellow students. The purpose of this symposium is to celebrate the students' accomplishments, to solidify the knowledge the students gained during their research experience, and to share the richness and variety of the research that is being conducted on campus. After the completion of the symposium an award ceremony and reception is yield. School of Public Health Partnership The CVM has partnered with the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health and have developed a dual degree program, DVM (Western) and MPH (Minnesota), which directly link our professional program with a graduate education program. Currently we have 15 students enrolled in this dual degree program (from CVM classes 2009-2012).  Graduate SchoolA graduate school is critical to the future research development of the CVM's and University's research efforts. We are in the planning stages of developing graduate programs in which our faculty can contribute and current students and graduates can enroll. Admission of the first master's students is anticipated in Jan. 2010.
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