Paige Huntzberry Is Bringing Shark Research Experience to Aquatic Veterinary Medicine
Rowan University Class of 2030’s Paige Huntzberry is building a career at the intersection of marine science, conservation, and veterinary medicine, one species most people never get to meet at a time.
Paige Huntzberry can trace her path to veterinary medicine back to a sea turtle. Long before she ever held a stethoscope, she was watching rehabilitation work unfold on the coast, fascinated by a kind of care most people never think about: the quiet, specialized medicine that keeps ocean animals alive. That early exposure planted something that never let go. Today, Paige is a dual-degree MBA/DVM student at Rowan University's Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine, with her sights set on a career advancing the health of aquatic and exotic species that rarely make it into the conversation.
Her academic path started at Coastal Carolina University, where she graduated with honors in Marine Science and Biology. While there, she got hands-on experience most veterinary students only read about, working in shark research that included cardiac monitoring and satellite tagging. It was fieldwork that demanded precision and patience in equal measure, and it deepened a conviction she had been building since childhood: that the animals living beneath the surface deserve the same level of advocacy as the ones people see every day.
"My mission in life is to bridge the gap between people and the animals they don't often get the chance to understand."
Building Toward Aquatic Medicine
Paige has been accepted into Cornell University's AQUAVET program, a milestone that will sharpen her clinical focus on aquatic species even further. In the meantime, she is staying close to the work that drew her into this field in the first place. She currently volunteers with an aquaponics lab and a public aquarium husbandry team, splitting her hands-on hours between two settings that both demand a deep understanding of water quality, species-specific behavior, and the kind of careful observation that aquatic medicine requires.
Choosing Rowan's Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine was, by her own account, one of the easiest calls she has made in her career. As a brand new program, it carried the kind of uncertainty that might give some applicants pause. Paige saw it differently. Being part of a program from its earliest days meant the chance to help shape how it trains future veterinarians, not just pass through it. Staying close to home, and close to the ocean, made the decision feel less like a risk and more like alignment.
A Voice for the Overlooked
Outside the classroom and the lab, Paige has found another way to advance her mission: content creation. She builds educational material designed to make marine science and veterinary medicine more approachable, with a deliberate focus on species that rarely get their due. Her goal is not just to inform but to build advocacy, helping people care about animals they may never have considered before, and in doing so, support the conservation efforts those species depend on.
"I want to educate the public on species that are overlooked or misunderstood, especially in marine and exotic medicine, and help advocate for their care and conservation."
That instinct for communication did not appear out of nowhere. Before she found her way to veterinary medicine, Paige attended a performing arts high school for acting, and she has not let go of what she learned there. If she were not pursuing veterinary medicine, she says without hesitation, she would be doing it professionally. Those same skills now show up daily, in how she communicates with clients, presents her work, and represents her veterinary program as an ambassador.
On Mental Health in the Profession
Paige is clear-eyed about what she sees as the biggest challenge facing veterinary medicine today: not a lack of resilience among practitioners, but a system that makes resilience hard to sustain. The emotional weight of patient care, student debt, client expectations, and compassion fatigue compound quickly for people who tie their self-worth to the care they provide. Her view is that the profession needs to treat mental health with the same seriousness it treats medicine, through stronger support systems, more open conversation, and a culture where asking for help is never seen as a weakness.
Where It Started
Paige made her first dollar as a zookeeper at a wildlife preserve in her hometown, working primarily with hoofstock but also gaining experience with primates and avian species. It was an early, formative window into the range of animal care she would eventually pursue, and it helped confirm what she already suspected: her interests were never going to stay confined to one corner of the animal kingdom.
Paige Huntzberry is a dual-degree MBA/DVM student at Rowan University's Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine. Vet Candy's Rising Stars program celebrates the next generation of veterinary professionals making an impact before they even have their license. myvetcandy.com/rising-stars
