Alumni Spotlight: Ben Butler
This week’s alumni spotlight is Ben Butler! Ben graduated in May of 2020 and is currently finishing his first year at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine. Beyond veterinary school, he hopes to work as a general practice mixed animal or small animal veterinarian. Within this career, Ben also wants to focus on client education to promote animal healthcare and continue serving his community. You can see Ben here with his dog, Titan.
Ben first joined AED as a sophomore in the Fall 2017 New Member Class, where he started out as the New Member Publicity Chair. After that, Ben continued to be a part of AED leadership as the VP of Finances for both his junior and senior years.
Looking back, Ben says that his favorite part of being in AED was definitely the community between members.
“AED really does a great job of focusing on fostering a supportive community, especially through the new member process, enzyme-substrate program, and social events. I encourage all members to take full advantage of these opportunities.”
Beyond the memories he has of being in AED, Ben also shared how this organization prepared him for his next steps beyond Baylor in two important ways.
“First, it taught me the importance of being active in my community and making a positive impact through service. This has been something that I was able to prioritize in my undergraduate years and has become a point of emphasis in my career goals. Second, it showed me how necessary it is to have a close group of like-minded friends to support each other. Because of learning this from AED, I really emphasized finding a similar group of friends in vet school early on. My friends have helped me immensely in studying and more importantly, in making vet school and life more enjoyable.”
For Ben, and many of AED’s members, the things you learn and the ways you grow as a member of this organization will impact you in the years to come in your career goals and beyond.
Lastly, Ben shared some words of wisdom for current AED members that everyone can learn from, no matter which pre-health path you are on.
“While professional school is definitely going to be stressful and will demand a lot of studying and hard work, it is important to remember that these are four years of your life and you don’t want to spend four years of your life studying to a point where you are miserable. It is okay and absolutely necessary to give yourself days off every now and again to enjoy yourself and do whatever it is that makes you happy. Remind yourself that you worked hard to get to where you are, and you are one step closer to becoming whatever it is that you aspire to be.”
As a part of AED, we have the amazing opportunity to connect with a wide variety of pre-health students on different career paths and we greatly value the experiences of our members, like Ben, pursuing careers in veterinary medicine.
Stay tuned for more alumni spotlights about the amazing people who have been a part of Baylor AED!
Written by Jasmine Hartman Budnik