Gen Z Was Told We Would Save the World. Is It Delusional to Think We Still Can?

Gen Z grew up with a fairly ridiculous assignment. Fix climate change. Fix inequality. Make workplaces healthier. Protect the planet. Care about mental health. Build better systems. Use technology responsibly. Somehow repair all the things previous generations could not quite figure out, preferably while paying rent, answering emails, and maintaining a respectable LinkedIn profile. Then a whole bunch of us went to veterinary school.

That may have been an interesting choice, because veterinary medicine contains almost every enormous problem Gen Z was told it was supposed to care about. There are communities without adequate access to veterinary care, shelters operating beyond capacity, shortages in rural and food-animal medicine, wildlife and ecosystems under pressure, antimicrobial resistance, emerging infectious diseases, a mental-health crisis within the profession, crushing educational costs, affordability problems for pet owners, and workplaces still figuring out how to retain the next generation of veterinarians. It would be easy to look at that list and decide the whole “change the world” thing was wildly optimistic. Except something interesting is already happening: veterinary students are not waiting for somebody to hand them the profession before they start changing it.

Gen Z Is Not Waiting for Graduation

There was a time when veterinary school could feel like the period when you prepared to eventually have an impact. Learn the medicine, pass the NAVLE, earn the DVM, find a job, become established, and maybe years later start thinking about leadership, advocacy, entrepreneurship, research, or changing how the profession works.

That timeline is increasingly outdated. Look at what veterinary students are doing right now. They are starting nonprofit initiatives, building technology companies, creating access-to-care programs, conducting research, leading national veterinary organizations, building communities for underrepresented students, creating media platforms, working in wildlife conservation, and questioning systems that previous generations simply accepted as the way veterinary medicine worked.

Gen Z is not waiting patiently in the lobby for somebody to announce that it is their turn.

Jean Carlos Alvarado Colon Is Already Building Access to Care

Colorado State University veterinary student Jean Carlos Alvarado Colon is a pretty good example of what this generation's version of changing veterinary medicine can look like.Alvarado Colon helped create a student-led community veterinary initiative after recognizing two problems that could potentially solve each other: underserved communities needed greater access to veterinary care, and veterinary students needed more opportunities to develop hands-on clinical and communication skills before their clinical years.

The project grew. According to Vet Candy's 2026 Rising Stars coverage, the initiative mobilized more than 120 volunteers, held eight community events, and provided care to 507 animals, including 144 animals during a single clinic day. The work has focused in part on reaching Spanish-speaking pet owners and creating community-based access to preventive veterinary care.

That is not a hypothetical discussion about someday making veterinary care more accessible. It is hundreds of animals receiving care while the person helping build the model is still earning his DVM.

Jeremiah Pouncy Is Refusing to Pick Just One Lane

At Cornell, veterinary student Jeremiah Pouncy is approaching veterinary medicine as something much larger than a traditional clinical career. His work crosses wildlife conservation, technology, entrepreneurship, media, business, diversity, and veterinary innovation. AAHA has highlighted Pouncy specifically for his perspectives on diversity, artificial intelligence, technology, business, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and the future of veterinary medicine. His conservation work has also taken him internationally, including field experiences involving wildlife and community veterinary projects.

That matters because one of the most interesting things about this generation of veterinarians may be its refusal to accept the idea that a DVM has to lead to one narrowly defined career. Pouncy can be interested in conservation medicine and entrepreneurship. He can work with wildlife and talk about AI. He can practice veterinary medicine and build businesses and communicate science to an audienceThat is not a lack of focus. It may be what a modern veterinary career increasingly looks like.

Jess Mitchell Is Asking Who Veterinary Medicine Is Actually Reaching

At The Ohio State University, veterinary student Jess Mitchell is looking at veterinary medicine through another major challenge facing the profession: access to care. Mitchell has described a future focused on shelter medicine and creating more affordable ways for animals to receive veterinary treatment before financial problems force families to surrender pets they love. She wants to pursue shelter medicine while exploring models that could make preventive and veterinary services accessible to more communities. She is also one of the student voices behind Vet School After Dark, Vet Candy's student-led podcast, where veterinary students themselves are talking about the profession they are preparing to inherit.

That distinction matters. Gen Z did not create the veterinary affordability crisis, but students like Mitchell are already asking whether the next version of veterinary medicine can address it differently.

Sometimes changing a profession starts by asking a question previous generations stopped asking because the answer seemed too difficult.

Cayden Smith Is Taking a Seat at the Table Before She Has a DVM

Then there is Cayden Smith, a veterinary student at Long Island University who was elected president-elect of the national Student American Veterinary Medical Association. She is scheduled to serve as SAVMA president during the 2027–2028 academic year. That means a veterinary student is not simply preparing to enter organized veterinary medicine. She is helping lead one of the country's major student veterinary organizations while still navigating exams, classes, and the rest of vet school.

Student leadership matters because decisions about wellness, education, professional development, advocacy, diversity, career preparation, and the future of veterinary medicine should not happen exclusively in rooms filled with people decades removed from veterinary school.

If the profession wants to understand what its future workforce needs, one approach is remarkably straightforward: give that workforce a microphone.

Morgan Lunn Is Rethinking How We Learn Veterinary Medicine

Gen Z is also entering veterinary medicine at exactly the moment when technology is changing what professional education can look like. UC Davis veterinary student Morgan Lunn helped co-found Vet Scientia, a cloud-based virtual simulation platform designed to help veterinary students practice anesthesia management through realistic clinical scenarios before facing those situations with actual patients. The project won the $12,500 Animal Health and Industry Award at UC Davis' 2025 Big Bang! Business Competition. Think about what that represents. Instead of looking at a gap in veterinary education and saying, someone should create something for that, a veterinary student helped create it.

That sentence—someone should really fix this—may be one of the most important dividing lines in innovation. Increasingly, veterinary students are following it with another thought: Why not us?

Kat Velez Is Changing Who Gets to See Themselves in Vet Med

At the University of Minnesota, DVM student Kat Velez has combined research, leadership, community medicine, and representation. She co-founded her college's Latinx Veterinary Medical Association chapter to support Latinx and Hispanic veterinary students and professionals while strengthening connections with aspiring veterinarians and the communities the profession serves. She was also selected for the Chewy Veterinary Leaders Program and has participated in research and interprofessional health initiatives.

Representation can sound like an abstract institutional goal until you are the student walking into veterinary school and realizing almost nobody around you shares your background. Creating a professional community changes that experience for the people who arrive next.

That is another version of changing veterinary medicine. You get through the door, then hold it open.

Kennedi Robinson Is Building the Mentorship She Wanted to See

Purdue veterinary student Kennedi Robinson has focused much of her emerging leadership on mentorship and supporting the veterinary students coming behind her. She was selected as a Chewy Veterinary Leader, part of an AAVMC program designed to provide mentorship, leadership development, career support, and scholarships to students from underrepresented backgrounds. Vet Candy has also highlighted Robinson's efforts to build the type of mentoring and support system she wished had been easier to find herself.

That might not sound as disruptive as inventing a medical device or launching a startup, but mentorship changes professions. The veterinary student who feels supported stays. The person who can imagine themselves belonging applies. The young veterinarian who receives good mentorship becomes the senior veterinarian who provides it.

Culture is built that way—one person deciding the next person's experience should be better than theirs was.

Gen Z Is Also Changing What It Expects From Veterinary Employers

The change is not limited to students launching projects. It is showing up in what the newest generation of veterinary professionals expects from the workplace.

Veterinary educators and employers are increasingly studying how to recruit and retain Gen Z veterinarians, and the message emerging from veterinary students is not simply “we want to work less.” Auburn University reported in 2026 on veterinary-student research showing that younger applicants respond to concrete information about structured mentorship, onboarding, workplace culture, and professional development, rather than vague promises about “work-life balance” or a “great team.”

That is an important distinction. Wanting boundaries does not mean caring less about medicine. Wanting mentorship does not mean being incapable of independence. Asking an employer to explain how doctors are trained, supported, scheduled, and developed is not entitlement.

It may simply mean this generation watched what burnout did to the people who came before them and took notes.

Maybe Gen Z's Biggest Contribution Will Be Questioning the Things We Normalized

Veterinary medicine contains a surprising number of traditions that at some point became unquestionable simply because they had existed for a long time. Brutal schedules were proof you were dedicated. Crushing student debt was something everyone accepted. Getting screamed at during training was supposedly character-building. Young associates were expected to be grateful simply to have a position. Mental-health struggles were discussed quietly, if at all. Gen Z did not invent boundaries, wellness, mentorship, inclusive workplaces, access to care, sustainability, technology, or flexible careers. What it may be doing differently is asking why those things are still treated as optional. Sometimes progress does not begin with a revolutionary invention. Sometimes somebody younger walks into the room and asks, “Why exactly are we still doing it this way?”

And nobody has a particularly good answer.

Veterinarians Who Came Before Gen Z Still Matter—A Lot

None of this requires pretending that one generation invented progress.Every veterinary student doing innovative work today is benefiting from professors, mentors, researchers, technicians, veterinarians, activists, and educators who built something before them. Experienced veterinarians have knowledge that cannot be downloaded from an app or replaced by confidence and a TikTok account.The interesting opportunity is not Gen Z replacing older generations.It is what happens when they work together.

Imagine the veterinarian with thirty years of clinical judgment working alongside the student who sees a completely different way to deliver care. Imagine experienced practice owners actually listening when young associates explain why people are leaving. Imagine students learning not only medicine from their mentors but also the mistakes the profession does not need to repeat.

That combination is much more powerful than another generational argument about who works harder.

You Do Not Need 500 Animals or a National Title to Matter

Stories about people doing remarkable things can become intimidating if the takeaway becomes, Great, apparently I should have founded a nonprofit before anatomy lab.

You do not have to. Changing veterinary medicine can happen on a much smaller scale. Maybe you organize a vaccination clinic. Maybe you become the person in your class who notices when someone is struggling. Maybe you conduct one research project, mentor one pre-vet student, improve one hospital protocol, advocate for one client who needs another option, or eventually build a veterinary workplace where people actually want to stay. Most changes never receive an award. They still count.

Maybe This Is What “Saving the World” Actually Looks Like

Gen Z probably will not save the world in the dramatic way we were promised. There is no single generation coming to repair climate change, inequality, veterinary shortages, animal welfare, public health, mental health, access to care, education costs, and every dysfunctional workplace before lunch.

But look around veterinary medicine and something much more believable is happening. Jean Carlos Alvarado Colon is expanding community access to veterinary care. Jeremiah Pouncy is connecting conservation, technology, media, and entrepreneurship. Jess Mitchell is thinking about new models for shelter medicine and affordability. Cayden Smith is stepping into national veterinary leadership. Morgan Lunn is developing new ways to teach clinical decision-making. Kat Velez is creating representation and community. Kennedi Robinson is building mentorship for the students coming next. They have not even finished building their careers.And that may be the point.

Veterinary medicine does not need Gen Z to swoop in and “save” a profession that generations of veterinarians have spent their lives building. It needs something much more realistic: people willing to inherit what works, question what does not, and build the next version. Some of them are already doing it while studying for tomorrow's exam.

Maybe Gen Z was never supposed to save the entire world. Maybe our job is to take the piece of it we were given—our clinic, our community, our profession, our patients—and leave it better than we found it.

In veterinary medicine, that is not a delusion. We can already see it happening.