Rachel Lapidus Came to Veterinary Medicine With a Rescue Dog, a Feral Cat Project, and a Plan

Rachel Lapidus will tell you that if she were not becoming a veterinarian, she would be writing songs. Music is the thing that clears her mind completely, the one place where the noise of clinical rotations and board prep and the relentless pace of veterinary school cannot follow her. It is also, in a way, a window into who she is. Someone who needs a creative outlet. Someone who processes hard things by making something. Someone who carries a lot and has figured out how to carry it well.

Rachel is a Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine student completing her clinical year at Louisiana State University, a Dean's List academic who passed the NAVLE on her first attempt and has spent her entire veterinary school career showing up for animals in ways that go well beyond what any curriculum requires.

In St. Kitts, she was part of the Feral Cat Project, trapping, spaying, and neutering feral cats to improve both animal welfare and community health outcomes. She was a member of the Shelter Medicine Club and participated in community outreach events providing heartworm testing, flea and tick prevention, deworming, vaccinations, and essential care for local animals. She served as a toxicology tutor for four consecutive semesters. She was involved in Swine Club, Small Ruminant Club, Kennel Companion Club, Surgery Club, and Equine Club. The breadth of her species interests reflects something real about how she approaches this profession — with genuine curiosity across all of it, not just the areas that come most naturally.

Her long-term goal is to open a nonprofit foster organization specifically for senior shelter animals. Not puppies and kittens with their whole lives ahead of them and their easy adoptability. Senior animals. The ones who wait the longest and leave the earliest. The ones who need someone to decide that their final chapter is worth fighting for. That goal says more about Rachel's character than any academic credential could.

The inspiration behind it is her rescue dog, Ruby, who she credits with reminding her every day why she chose this path.

On burnout and accessibility as the field's biggest challenges: Rachel is clear-eyed about what veterinary medicine is asking of the people who enter it. The emotional workload is enormous, the financial and mental demands are real, and too many pet owners still cannot access the care their animals need. Her vision for the future of the profession is one where support for veterinary teams and community outreach exist together — not as competing priorities but as two sides of the same sustainable system.

On the three qualities that carried her through: Resilience, compassion, and curiosity. She describes veterinary school as something that challenges you academically, emotionally, and mentally every single day, and says that being able to adapt while still caring deeply about both animals and people has been the through line. The curiosity piece matters to her specifically because it is what keeps her motivated during the harder moments, not just the rewarding ones.

On purpose: Her father told her early on that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. She has carried that with her. Purpose, in her framing, is not about achievement alone. It is what makes the difficult moments meaningful rather than just difficult. It is the difference between success and fulfillment, and she is building a career oriented toward the second one.

On what she wishes she had known before day one: Protect your identity outside of veterinary medicine. Vet school is full of driven, passionate people all moving toward the same goal, and it will consume your entire life if you let it. The friendships, the hobbies, the creative outlets, the mental health practices — those are not distractions from the work. They are what make the work sustainable.

On who she admires: Both of her parents. Her father checks in on her every single day and has spent countless hours helping her study for exams in a field he has no background in, purely because of his love for her. Her mother has been a constant source of reassurance and support. She calls her dad one of her best friends.

Rachel Lapidus is the kind of veterinarian this profession needs more of. Not just clinically capable — though she is that — but oriented toward the animals and communities that get the least. Senior shelter dogs. Feral island cats. Underserved pet owners. The ones who are easy to overlook.

She is not overlooking them.