You're listening to Veterinary Vertex , a podcast of the AVMA Journals . In this episode we chat with AJVR Student Award winner , Lilli Heinen .
Welcome to Veterinary Vertex . I'm Editor-in-Chief Lisa Fortier , and I'm joined by Associate Editor Sarah Wright . Today we have Lilli joining us . Lilli , congratulations again and thank you so much for taking your time to be with us here today .
Thank you so much for having me . It's been an honor to receive this award and be on this podcast .
All right , let's dive into how you felt when you found out that you won this award . So , Lilli , you are a student award winner for your AJVR article Evaluation of Predictive Models to Determine Final Outcome for Feedlot Cattle based on information available at First Treatment for Bovine Respiratory Disease .
What was your reaction when you found out that you were nominated , and then when you found out you had won ?
Well , I was in the midst of my clinical year at Kansas State and I hadn't been really attentive to my graduate work for that whole year , so I was surprised when I was nominated .
And then when I heard that I was nominated , I was like , well , that's really nice , but I'm sure there's a lot of other manuscripts that were being submitted for nomination and I'm sure that they were going to win . So, when I found out I won , I was even more surprised .
This paper actually had previously been rejected from publication in another journal and so I was just excited to have it published in AJVR . Certainly, was not expecting it to win an award , so it was a really happy surprise for me .
That sounds a little bit Lilli , like some imposter syndrome going on .
Yes , definitely , being a vet student came with its own challenges as far as imposter syndrome , and then , on top of that , doing a graduate program . There's a lot of times that I felt like I don't know , maybe I wasn't good enough to be in this position .
So having that be validated and winning an award like this really solidified that I'm in the right field .
You certainly are . You know , as Sarah said , we got a lot of nominations this year , and so congratulations again . You're very much deserving of this award .
Thank you . Thank you so much .
Yeah , what sparked your research interest in BRD ?
I've always been interested in large animal medicine , had always had an interest in cattle , even though I never grew up with them . When I started vet school I was interested in doing research . I just wasn't sure what area I was really interested in , but I knew I wanted to do something with cattle .
When I started working as a research intern with the current group that I'm with now , I discovered how much research there is about BRD and how much more work there is to do , and that really drove my passion for that topic and I've enjoyed it ever since .
Yeah well , we're very fortunate to have you , and so is the bovine industry . We need more clinicians and researchers , as you well know .
Yes , definitely .
We're so excited at AVMA and JAVMA to implement this initiative to recognize and encourage growing clinicians and researchers . How has winning this award affected your outlook on your career path ?
I've always enjoyed research . I've always enjoyed the research that I'm doing for my graduate program . However , I did have some doubts that the industry would care as much as I did about my research topic , but this award has shown me that not only do people find this interesting , they want more research in this area .
There's a need , like you said , for people in the bovine industry who are also interested in doing research , who understand the data and understand what the producer needs .
So, being able to win this award and feel good about the research that I'm doing is that much more motivating to continue my graduate program , finish out and then join the industry as a young researcher .
That's actually a perfect segue into our next question . So , Lilli , how did your training prepare you to write this manuscript ?
I would say that , throughout my training , my mentors have always encouraged me to focus on research that I was very passionate about . I've always been told that you're never going to enjoy the research that you don't care about . So, my training has made me passionate about this topic .
I've also learned to evaluate journal articles and you know how we publish research critically and that , in turn , has made me more critical with myself and , I think , being it's taught me to be disciplined , to do good research , to write well and to really provide solid research , for which we can , you know , build principles of medicine on and really give back to
the industry .
Yeah , I like what you said , Lilli , about having a passion . I read today and I hope I don't mess this up Success doesn't bring you happiness . Happiness brings you success . So, love what you do .
Yeah , absolutely , and I've I've felt that way honestly ever since I started college and chose this career path .
Oh , wow , that's awesome . Thank you for sharing that .
Yeah .
Lilli , if you could have a superpower , what would it be and why ?
That's a really tough question and I feel like my answer is going to be maybe a little bit strange . But I'd want to read people's minds . I just want to know what people are thinking , not just about myself , but I also want to know just about the situation and be able to read people and think that you know , kind of adjust the situation based on that .
Just know what everybody's thinking at all times .
Does that apply to animals too , Lilli ?
Yeah , that would be great If I could read animals' minds . Be the best veterinarian in the world , I think .
That's pretty brave of you to want to know when somebody has a snap judgment of you, and you walk into the producer's area . I don't know if I want to know that .
So , Lilli , what advice would you share with veterinary students that are hoping to publish manuscripts ?
I would say choose your co-authors wisely . Choose your research group wisely and this kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier, picking a research topic and a research group that you feel passionate , working towards and with .
I think you can't do anything well if you don't like it and if you have a hard time working with the people that are around you , then maybe you're not in the right place .
And when I started my graduate program , I was very picky about where I was going to do my PhD , because I wanted not only to perform research that I was passionate about , but also work with people that I really liked and had a similar mindset to me . I would also say not to be afraid to ask for feedback .
Writing a paper is really weird if you've never written in a scientific manner . It's a very specific way of writing and it's not intuitive .
So if you can't do it the first time , you should never feel bad about that , and receiving feedback and being able to take constructive criticism is a skill in and of itself , and if you're able to do that , there's really nothing holding you back from writing a good manuscript .
Yeah , feedback is so important . It's how we grow . I always made a point at the end of all my externships and clinical rotations to ask for feedback , even if it was just like a week or two weeks , just to grow as a clinician and also as a scientist too .
Yeah , exactly .
So, thank you again , Lilli for being here today and congratulations on your AJVR student award .
Thank you so much . I'm honored to receive this award . Thank you for having me , and a big shout out to my mentors at the Beef Cattle Institute at Kansas State University . They've been integral in getting me to this point and I'm very , very proud to be working with them .
Congratulations again to all of our journal award winners . If you're listening and you have a student , intern or resident author that you're thinking of nominating , nominate them today . Please see our website for further instructions . You can read Lilli's manuscript in AJVR using your favorite search engine . I'm Sarah Wright , joined by Lisa Fortier .
We want to thank each of you for joining us on this episode of the Veterinary Vertex Podcast . We love sharing cutting-edge veterinary research with you and we want to hear from you . Be sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you listen to .