House system in DVM programs

[roboblu]

Hi all! I'm in the process of trying to create a "house" system in my veterinary college ala Harry Potter. OSU, MSU, and NCSU all have similar programs. We hope to use this system as a fun, cute way to keep students engaged, especially as COVID has limited our capacity to interact with other students. Can any students from OSU or MSU connect me with someone to learn more about how your systems are organized? Or does anyone care to share suggestions on this thread? I have the following questions off the top of my head:

-What kind of planning organization is in place for your system? Is there a committee or governing body?
-How were your houses devised? Did the student body have any input?
-How are new students sorted into houses?
-Is there any kind of competitive rewards system among your houses?

Thanks to everyone for your help in advance!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Lupin21]

Hi all! I'm in the process of trying to create a "house" system in my veterinary college ala Harry Potter. OSU, MSU, and NCSU all have similar programs. We hope to use this system as a fun, cute way to keep students engaged, especially as COVID has limited our capacity to interact with other students. Can any students from OSU or MSU connect me with someone to learn more about how your systems are organized? Or does anyone care to share suggestions on this thread? I have the following questions off the top of my head:

-What kind of planning organization is in place for your system? Is there a committee or governing body?
-How were your houses devised? Did the student body have any input?
-How are new students sorted into houses?
-Is there any kind of competitive rewards system among your houses?

Thanks to everyone for your help in advance!

Oklahoma State also implemented this. The different houses host a variety of events and we had a "cup" where participation and some group events allowed for accumulation of points as well as provide social outlets. Pretty straight forward on our end. @cdo96 can elaborate more as she is still a part of the system and I've since graduated. haha

 

[JustPaws]

How were your houses devised? Did the student body have any input?
-How are new students sorted into houses?
-Is there any kind of competitive rewards system among your houses?

2021 was inaugural class so they picked colors and names and tied the qualities to body systems. We have a house cup and ways to earn points all year through club trivia and events plus an end of year week long event to earn tons of points. We have a big milk jug that gets painted by the winning house and kept for the year. New students are just split up I think but there is a fun little ceremony and our fake palpation cow sorts them.

 

[supershorty]

Minnesota has this too, but started it after my class had already been there a year so we didn’t experience it. @SnowJ @gabynicolex

 

[finnickthedog]

So 2021 actually didn't pick anything out here, we were just the first class to be sorted into houses at orientation.

I don't know how the classes below me are in regards to the house system and maybe they're more engaged in it, but my class in general seemed to lose enthusiasm for it fairly quickly. I don't think they really did much in my first year to actually engage us and I don't know if they're doing better on that now as classes come in.

But anyways my two cents is that if you implement a sorting ceremony do not make students sit through the sorting of every single member of the class. They did that my year and it got so boring after like... the 3rd person. In subsequent years the "sorting" is a stop on the tour so it's done in smaller groups. I've heard a couple students from those classes comment that they wish they'd gotten to see everyone sorted but... eh, it sounds cool until you're actually sitting through 100 people getting sorted. 0/5 stars. Would not recommend.

 

[britzen]

VMCVM has this for 2nd year spay surgeries in spring semester. House points for things that are done well during our spay surgeries, points deducted for things that we didn't.

Weekly bonus points for silly challenges related to the material we were learning that week. Some examples:

Best surgery related haikus. (Still mad I didn't win.)
Best description of a thestral's estrous cycle.
A scavenger hunt to familiarize students with the teaching hospital.

Our houses were randomly assigned based on our surgery lab groups - 1/4 of the 2nd year class is doing surgery in any given week during the spring here.

 

[Blueangel7]

KSU has a house system as well. Participation is hit or miss for most of the events. Points are given for different events throughout the year like House Relay, Penny Wars, Trivia Night etc. We try and create a buddy system inside our House as well to give the 1st years someone to reach out to with a similar interest as them. Participation again is hit or miss though since we already have a ton of other things going on with clubs and classes

 

[dogtorschmogtor]

Hi late to the party! Yes, UMN has this but I don't think we've kept up with It super well. They're "wellness houses" so each house recieves points for doing things to keep up our mental health (taking study breaks, working out, doing non-vet med related things, etc). We had a sorting party that was held over lunch one day (I think lunch anyways) and It was a Harry Potter style. I've never seen Harry Potter so I didn't get It but lots of my classmates seemed to have fun with It.

 

[SnowJ]

Minnesota has this too, but started it after my class had already been there a year so we didn’t experience it. @SnowJ @gabynicolex

My class didn't really embrace this; I'm not sure if it was because the committee in charge of it was formed really late in the year or because the surveys that were supposed to earn us points stopped getting sent out.

Hi late to the party! Yes, UMN has this but I don't think we've kept up with It super well. They're "wellness houses" so each house recieves points for doing things to keep up our mental health (taking study breaks, working out, doing non-vet med related things, etc). We had a sorting party that was held over lunch one day (I think lunch anyways) and It was a Harry Potter style. I've never seen Harry Potter so I didn't get It but lots of my classmates seemed to have fun with It.

Aw man, a sorting party would have been fun! We were randomly assigned and I think sent an email or something to let us know, then we had one goale or lunch meeting where we did activities. After that we had I think just one or two of the wellness surveys before I stopped hearing about it.

The way UMN handles it (or how they used to anyway) is that we have a SAVMA wellness committee that runs it each year. They are supposed to send us surveys that give us points for wellness activities like gabynicolex described, and then there are rewards for the house with the most points. The problem is these committees change completely every year, so there's a period before the committee exists and then they don't have someone with previous experience to keep it up and running in a consistent way. It's also mainly focused on first years, so I think the drive to keep it running ends up low. I think it would be good if our wellness club was in charge of it, because the structure seems to be floundering. Also if it continued through the years as another way for the classes to get to know each other.