Hi friends!
Looking for some guidance on categorizing experience and general tips for the explanation statement.
Experience I need help with:
1. Animal care technician in a cardiovascular CRO - my tasks ranged from basic animal husbandry (feeding, medicating, cage cleaning) to bandaging animals on a daily basis and assisting with gavaging and programming pacemakers. I also assisted in an intensive care, 24/7 watch study where I was responsible for fluids, catheters, setting up an LVAD during each shift, and general monitoring and care. My job was under direct supervision of a veterinarian and the person I reported to was a veterinarian, but I just want to clarify if this would be veterinary or animal experience, since I was doing a lot of husbandry.
2. Research assistant - I would assume this is considered research, but I did mouse colony management and was not directly involved in publications. I did collect data for studies, assist with tissue collection, etc., but my primary role was colony management including breeding, weaning, genotyping, and culling and tracking all of this through our software.
3. Animal ownership experiences - I see that a lot of people who were in FFA/4-H include raising show animals. Is it appropriate to include hours raising goats and chickens in high school as long as I don't fluff up the hours? Also, I have a cat, and I helped my roommate adopt a cat and have been very involved in the care of her cat, including pet sitting as well as teaching my roommate how to do various care procedures like nail trimming, ear cleaning, etc. I cat-sit for her at least once a month for 3-4 days, if not more. (edit: I also have implemented clicker training for the cats after learning in-depth about this at the shelter I worked at. I spend a decent amount of time training my cat which has immensely helped with the aggression between the two cats. Is training something I can include?)
4. Experiment through FFA in high school - I did a pretty in-depth experiment on my own in high school for an FFA agriscience competition, where I grew the bacteria that causes thrush in horses and did an inhibition assay and measured (roughly) MIC. I would love to include it because it was a project I really enjoyed and feel passionate about, and it sparked my interest in veterinary epidemiology, but because of COVID I never got to present it. I still technically competed by application and my written work, but did not get to do the full thing. Would this be research or extracurricular if I do include it?
5. Selling designs on Etsy - I started selling products, mostly digital designs for livestock producers, on Etsy my senior year. It was a big time investment at the time because I created custom logos, stickers, etc., but now my Etsy shop mostly runs itself and I only sell digital products due to lack of space and time to do physical items. Should I include this? If so, how can I break up the hours since I initially spent many hours per week and now spend very little time on this?
Finally, I would love any insight into how others have written explanation statements! I struggle with mental health, including being hospitalized 3 times during undergrad and also having to undergo intensive outpatient care and partial hospitalization programs, but I am unsure of how to tactfully explain this. One of my hospitalizations led to me having to retroactively withdraw from 2-3 courses that semester as I was in the hospital for over a week just before finals (and lost my job). I am fairly comfortable talking about this if it were to come up in an interview, but I want to ensure I don't sound like I dropped the courses due to any reason other than absolute necessity. I have definitely made significant progress in my mental health, especially in the past year.
Sorry for the long post! I appreciate input on any of the questions I've included, even if you can't respond to all
