Have you tried going to the center and asking if they accept summer interns? I don't know of any centers that do not. If that's the case, you might be able to then tell your school they accept interns and you would like to do that.
I haven't tried this. The only wildlife center anywhere close to me is a 501c3 non-for-profit so I'm not sure how that would work, but it's definitely worth a try. I'll give the lady a call tomorrow morning.
It is becoming more clear now, you did PSEO and got one year of college done, right? So, you still have to finish out this year and go two more before you get your bachelors degree. I would wait and apply next year like most people do, then if you get in you can finish up your bachelors degree and then go straight to vet school. If you apply now, you will be applying as one of the people getting in without a degree. Have you seen how many people do that successfully? Very few for most schools.
Okay, this is going to be a bit of a novel, so I apologize in advance!
At the end of my sophomore year of high school, I was planning to dual enroll at the local community college. In my area, you couldn't dual enroll at a university until you were a senior in high school (although I tried). First and foremost, my principal had an issue with the classes I wanted to take. It was something like precalculus and chemistry. She said it was "stupid" (and yes that is a direct quote) for me to do that and I should just take AP calculus as well as AP chemistry. I tried to explain to her that I didn't want to work so hard for an entire year only to be judged by a standardized exam and possibly end up with only a semester's worth of credit. We negotiated and she agreed to let me take anthropology and chemistry.
However, I had a friend who was going full-time as a dual enrollment student (something I was never made aware of by my high school), and she was taking classes like chemistry and biology (where the AP equivalent was available at her school). She went to school in a different county, and thus was zoned for a different community college. This community college allowed juniors to go full-time, whereas the one I went to never said whether they did or didn't.
I did a TON of research using the Florida statutes and all the educational bylaws. I discovered that I could go full time if my principal signed off on it with additional paperwork. At first, she said flat out no. I kept asking, and kept asking, and the principal was very insulting and said some nasty things. Eventually, she signed my paperwork! Everything was a go, until I got a call saying the principal was accusing me of lying to her and falsifying her signature. So, I was back to square one.
I talked to the head of dual enrollment for the state, as well as the head of public high schools. I was advised to leave my high school and enroll in an accredited online high school. I wanted to actually graduate and get my high school diploma, so I had to essentially go to a "private" school. I still had issues with them, but not nearly as many.
Anyway, this basically meant that I had to go full time with my high school, as well as with the college. Most dual enrollment students who go full time do not have to take any high school classes. So, I was taking six high school classes (three of which were AP) and four at the high school. I finished my junior year of high school with 35 college credits and I'd taken up to organic chemistry I as well as calculus. I was sixteen at that time.
I started my senior year at UCF, and decided to graduate a semester early. I literally graduated a week ago. I'm still waiting on my final transcripts, and I'm ecstatic because I finished high school with straight A's for three years and a 3.9 unweighted GPA and 4.2 weighted! I was still taking six classes at my high school, and my final semester I was taking immunology, genetics, o-chem II, and statistics (of which, statistics was obviously the easiest). I decided to graduate early when I realized I would be taking 15 credits over the spring -- this semester. I got one and half free years of college, which was fantastic. But I just couldn't stand doing all the high school work at the same time, and I'd be finishing it one way or another. Also, I wasn't guaranteed to have my spring semester paid for by my school.
And don't worry! You're not being harsh, and you're not telling me anything I don't already know. I know my chances are terrible, and I know the deck is stacked against me. Everyone thinks I'm in a rush but this is how I see it: it's not like I'm
not going to take these classes and it's not like I'm
never getting my Bachelors. All of the prerequisites for vet school, I'm going to take anyway. I'm not even really taking them out of order when you consider that this is my second year, fifth semester in college and I'll be a junior (by credits) at the end of this semester. So, if I'm doing all of these classes anyway, why not send in an application to the vet school? If I get rejected, it just gives me more time to take more classes that interest me (I can't be the only one that wants to take upper division electives because of how cool they sound!), and polish my application and get more experience.
I'm honestly not expecting to get in on my first try. I'm really not. I wasn't even considering applying until a friend, who owns his own veterinary practice, told me that's what he did, and I should try. But if I do get in, it'll be the best surprise ever.