Wenzdae always knew she wanted to be a veterinarian and that this would mean she needed to do very well in college. While she was enrolled in the UVM pre-vet program though, she was surprised by how many extracurricular activities she could also be involved in. In her sophomore year she joined the Nordic Club and through her passion for skiing made a lot of great friends. Those friends encouraged her to join the cycling road racing team and they continued to train together even during the off season. As a junior she was able to join the student-run Horse Barn Coop and to bring her horse to college. She describes this as a massive time commitment, involving multiple chores every day. But she says she met a ton of great people through that experience and that it was completely worth it. Even though she had never ridden horses competitively, she competed on the Equestrian Team in her senior year, and the team qualified and competed at Nationals. She was also an illustrator for the Vermont Cynic, the student-run UVM newspaper.
“Clubs and club sports were a really great way to get out that stress that you build up from class. I personally usually became very anxious about exams I had coming up, or the amount of work I had to do. But I found that I was able to manage that better when I had more stuff going on outside of class.”
Her advice to incoming students, “Join an extracurricular, join a club. There are over 200 clubs on campus so there is something out there for everyone. It's such a fabulous way to really meet your people, because you're gonna meet your people in your dorm, you're gonna meet them in your classes, but you're really gonna make a connection with people that you share those other interests with. My extracurriculars really made my time on campus, and you can fit as many in as you want.”