In order to assist veterinary students interested in small ruminant medicine, AASRP makes available a few small grants each year to help student members of AASRP undertake extern opportunities. You may apply approximately six months prior to extern program for an extern grant. It is not required that the experience be with small ruminants exclusively, but it should provide at least some chance to observe a modern veterinary practice working with one or more of the small ruminant species (sheep, goats, llamas, deer).

STEP 1:  Identify a specific opportunity by time, place, and the veterinarian with whom you will be working. It is also a very good idea to check with your faculty adviser to make sure that the opportunity meets all of the requirements of the veterinary school at which you are studying.

STEP 2:  Estimate your expenses for things such as travel, food, and housing carefully. Few practitioners provide any of these. Then, consider what help you really need, and ask for that amount. Realize, however, that AASRP grants are generally small. Although $500 is the maximum, they are expected to be more like $200-$250 in order to help as many students as possible.

STEP 3:  Send a completed grant application form to this office describing your extern plans, mentioning any contact which you expect to have with small ruminants, and detailing the financial aid you are requesting from AASRP. The extern grants are not competitive. Each is considered as it comes in. Preferably, you should allow time for the busy veterinarians who read the applications time to consult with one another and make a decision -- a month is usually enough. Please note that you must be an AASRP student member, to receive an AASRP extern grant.

STEP 4:  Within 30-days of completion of your externship, if you have received an extern grant from AASRP, you are expected to send a report to this office, describing your experience and how you have benefited from it. We find that students who keep a daily log of what they observe and learn seem to send in their reports quickly and easily, but we encourage students to just do it their own way and without too much delay. Parts of your report are likely to be quoted or summarized in the AASRP Newsletter.