Chasing down a dream

This is the third installment in a series of four veterinary students sharing the grit, grace, and glory involved in pursuing their dreams. Together, their stories reveal not just what it takes to become a veterinarian, but how that transformation unfolds—year by year.

Ben Kuntz, Year 3

Ben was drawn to LSU Vet Med for its exotics and wildlife programs. “I didn’t have bird experience, but I went to a raptor club meeting, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I went through two interviews to be selected as a raptor co-chair doing hands-on work with birds that come from our Wildlife Hospital. I’ve learned so much from Dr. Mark Mitchell,” Ben said.

Ben enjoys the collaboration and teaching newer students to help rehabilitate birds and take them into the community as ambassadors. He also appreciates the trust placed in him to help heal injured birds by developing and implementing surgical plans under the mentorship of Dr. Mitchell. “He is inspiring and motivational. He is one-of-a-kind,” he said.

“Seeing how the Wildlife Hospital clinicians and students help so many every day and try their hardest to get them back into the wild has changed the way I view veterinary medicine. We give every creature brought to us a chance at life,” he said.

To round out his technical skills, explore career paths, and build professional networks, Ben has initiated a series of two-week externships at a small animal clinic with a nearby raptor center in Alaska, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, University of Illinois Wildlife Hospital, and the Nashville Zoo.

After graduation, Ben will likely return to Illinois, where he grew up helping his grandfather on a farm tending beef cows, sheep and horses, and eventually become a wildlife veterinarian. He graduated from a tiny rural high school an hour south of Chicago and from Ohio State University in 2023 with a degree in zoology with a minor in human-animal interaction. His parents, an accountant and an electric company dispatcher, inherited his grandfather’s farm in St. Anne, Ill., where they grow corn and soy crops. “They encouraged me to be the best I could be and helped me enjoy animals,” he said.

Prior to LSU Vet Med, he had never lived in the South. “It was a big adjustment—the weather, not knowing anyone, learning how to study. I’ve made friends. We’re here to help each other. We’re in it together,” he said.

“Once you get this far, you’ve seen things a few times. I’m more confident.”

“Year 3 is weird! It’s half and half—classroom and a transition into the hospital. Once you get this far, you’ve seen things a few times. I’m more confident, and I’m excited to be in clinics on rotations with different species,” he said.

For fun, he runs the Mississippi River levee and keeps his eye out for resident eagles—some of whom he may have helped release back into the wild.

What would he tell his first-year self? “Keep pushing through, try your hardest, and you’ll make it. Enjoy people,” he said.