San Diego Mesa College’s Allied Health Programs held an orientation for the Animal Health Technician Program on Saturday Sept. 15 in the P-300.

Allied Health is one of the three departments within the School of Health Sciences and Public Service – the Animal Health Services being one of six programs offered by Allied Health for Mesa students. The animal health technician program is a vocational education program that teaches students to become registered veterinary technicians.

The program takes two years to complete, not including the prerequisites of basic biology and chemistry. The program is made up of a two to three unit lecture and one to two unit labs per semester.

The labs are hands on learning with animals living in the facility. Program Director Peggy Fischer said the labs are “a whole new dimension on things,” giving students the opportunity to work with many different types of live animals such as goats, guinea pigs and even an owl.

The matriculation rate ranges from 85 to 95 percent of students becoming state board certified.

According to Fischer, most graduates go on to work in either small, private animal health clinics or specialty health clinics focusing on one particular type of animal.

Coral Vera, 29, a first time student in the animal health technician program, hopes to become a registered vet technician and eventually, a veterinarian.

“The orientation was an opportunity and advantage to know what to expect as an individual working in this field,” said Vera.

Students often go into the Animal Health Technician program because of a love for and desire to work with animals.

“I want to work with animals and the program seemed like a good fit,” said Alma Gomez, 21, who is new to the program. She added that, “orientation answered all my questions and was really helpful.”