Pre-Veterinary Grad Moves on Toward the Career of Her Dreams

Since she was in first grade, Alicia Gehlhoff ’22 knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life: care for animals.

“I never questioned it,” said Gehlhoff. “There was never a doubt in my mind. I always wanted to be a veterinarian. Most students are trying to find what they’re interested in, but I always knew. I would put little PowerPoints together to sell my parents on getting chickens or rabbits. I wanted experiences with various animals at a young age.”

When she was around 16 years old, Gehlhoff says she began job-shadowing veterinarians at clinics in her local area, seeing first-hand what their day-to-day lives looked like. That’s when she really became serious about her calling.

Gehlhoff was set to attend either University of Wisconsin-River Falls, University of Wisconsin-Madison or the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, but her mother suggested she give SNC a look before making a final decision.

“So, I toured St. Norbert, and halfway through the tour, I knew I wanted to go here,” said Gehlhoff. “Everyone was so helpful, including my admission counselor, Eric Wagner. And the campus itself is so beautiful. I felt there was a real community here and believed I was going to get a lot of personal attention from the professors because of the small class sizes.”

Now, in just a few weeks, Gehlhoff will graduate from St. Norbert College with a biology degree, with an emphasis in biomedical science: the only pre-vet major in the 2022 graduating class of more than 500 students.

In February, Gehlhoff was accepted to both the UW-Madison and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Doctor of Veterinary Medicine programs, her top two choices of the six schools she applied to. She will begin her studies at UW-Madison in the fall. Gelhoff’s acceptance to the program was no small feat. “It’s harder to get into veterinarian school than medical school,” said Gehlhoff. “The reason for that is there are only like 29 veterinarian schools in the country. They have a limited class size. Most of my classes at Madison will be around 100 students,” Gehlhoff added.

“Alicia is a highly motivated, hard-working and focused student with a generous, optimistic personality,” said Deborah Anderson (Biology), Gehlhoff’s academic advisor at St. Norbert College. “She will use her academic talent to succeed in vet school.”

Gehlhoff conducted research with Anderson. “The ability to do research at St. Norbert is crazy,” said Gehlhoff. “You don’t have those opportunities at bigger schools. The biology program at St. Norbert College is rigorous and there are many options for upper-level biology courses.”

An honors student, Gelhoff made the dean’s list every semester of her undergraduate career. Outside of the classroom, she spent her summers job shadowing at northeast Wisconsin veterinary clinics in De Pere, Seymour and Florence. This summer, she’ll return home to Florence to work at Nose to Tail Animal Hospital with owner Dr. Kim VanLaarhoven.

“Alicia has proven to me she knows how to handle the path in front of her and the obstacles needed to achieve her dream,” said VanLaarhoven. “I believe wholeheartedly that Alicia will be putting her all into accomplishing a veterinary degree and becoming a great success.”

April 27, 2022