Emese Avdeyenkova Traded Combat Boots for a Stethoscope - and a Diaper Bag!

There is a particular kind of courage it takes to walk away from a career you have already proven yourself in and start over as a first-year student. Emese Avdeyenkova has done exactly that, twice over, once when she traded a biology degree for an Army uniform, and again when she traded that uniform for a white coat. Now she is bringing all of it, the discipline, the humility, and the hard-won perspective, to Vet Candy Radio as one of the vet student hosts of The Scrub Squad.

Emese grew up on a family farm, the kind of childhood where the veterinarian, the trainer, and the behaviorist were regular fixtures and animals were simply part of the family business. She studied biology and German at Union College, earned a master's in biology at the University of Nebraska Kearney, and then did something almost nobody expects from a future veterinarian. She became a Field Artillery Officer in the United States Army.

She led soldiers stateside and deployed into combat in Syria. It is not the typical path to vet school, and that is precisely what makes her voice on this podcast so valuable. She knows what it means to lead under pressure, to make decisions when there is no room for a second opinion, and to keep going when the easy choice would be to quit. That is the same grit every first-year veterinary student needs, whether they are facing a physiology final or their first overnight emergency shift.

The First Dollar

Long before the Army and long before vet school, Emese was a kid on a farm making a deal with her grandparents. Composting was a daily chore, but her grandparents' pile sat down a long farm road, so she struck a bargain: a quarter for every bucket she hauled and cleaned. By the fourth trip, she had earned her first dollar. It was not long before she was baking bread to sell too, and a lifelong love of baking for the people she cares about was born.

“I worked out an agreement with my grandparents to take out their compost for a quarter each time. The fourth day of a full, squeaky-clean bucket was the day I earned my first dollar.”

The Books that Swayed Her

Ask Emese what she has been reading and you get a window into how she thinks. Lessons in Chemistry struck a nerve as a woman in science, especially one that also loves to bake, a story she describes as tragically beautiful and a reminder to cherish the mundane moments before they become memories. The Midnight Library found her during her combat deployment, a season of real personal turmoil, and she admits to more than a few tears shed privately in her room while imagining her own alternate lives. She landed, in the end, exactly where the book hoped she would: certain that this is the life she wants to live, as fully and as presently as possible. It is also the book that sparked the very first conversation with the man who would become her husband.

Best Advice

“You don't get what you deserve, but what you attract. Set your goals high, but take life a little less seriously.”

Emese's advice to her younger self reads like a mission statement. Enjoy the little moments. Love fully, over and over. Laugh at yourself. Cry when you need to. Stop waiting for someone else to become what you want and become it yourself first. She did exactly that, and in the most unexpected way found the love of her life. She is quick to note it was the inner work that made the difference, not luck, and it is the same philosophy she brings to every relationship and every task in her life today, including the one she is about to begin as a veterinary student.

What about what everyone should do in their lifetime? Climb a mountain alone. Sit in the desert alone. Let the ocean lap at your feet alone. Watch the sun climb the horizon alone. Wander the forest alone. Emese believes that experiencing the extremes of the natural world in solitude teaches two lessons at once, that we are all simply part of nature, and the humility that comes with realizing just how small we are inside something so vast. It might be idealistic, she admits, but she believes the world would be gentler if more people internalized that lesson.

If She Didn’t Get In

Emese jokes that in another life she would run a micro bakery out of her own kitchen, selling from a farm stand her husband built while her son mans the register, and she would never, ever check the books because she already knows she would be losing money. Realistically, given her biology background, she says she would have become a wildlife conservationist. Either way, she is already living a version of it, baking for the people she loves, running toward difficult, meaningful work, and now preparing to spend her career serving the animals and the caretakers who cannot always speak for themselves.

Emese is currently balancing life as a new DVM student at Rowan University with supporting her husband's business ventures, raising her baby boy (he turns one in November), learning Russian, and, as she puts it, preparing for the rigorous program she is about to begin. She brings a rare combination of battlefield-tested composure and genuine warmth to every conversation, and that mix is exactly what makes her a natural fit as one of the vet student hosts of Vet Candy’s new podcast show, The Scrub Squad. First-year vet students tuning in will hear from someone who has already proven she can walk into the unknown and come out the other side stronger.

Welcome to the team, Emese. The Squad is lucky to have you!