Becoming a veterinarian was a childhood dream of mine that evolved naturally from a love for animals and an innate scientific curiosity. But from there my path has definitely not been straightforward. Throughout high school and college, I often doubted that I was cut out to be a doctor, and I am deeply indebted to my family, friends, and mentors who convinced me otherwise. During my undergraduate career, I was working on completing the prerequisite courses required for veterinary school applications when I started working in a lab. I unexpectedly fell in love with translational research and became hooked on the idea of finding better medical treatments by advancing our understanding of how a disease precisely and mechanistically develops. I thought I would have to choose between veterinary school and a biomedical PhD program, but then I discovered I could pursue both through a dual degree program. While researching different programs, I found out that clinician-scientists do much more than treat animals – they work across many sectors in academia, government, and industry to protect public health and advance medical care for a wide variety of species, including humans! And the more I learned about the wide range of potential career paths available to clinician-scientists, the more I realized that pursuing a DVM-PhD was the best fit for my interests and goals.