She Was a Division I Athlete. Now Rachel Churilla Is Coming for Veterinary Medicine
The former UC Davis Division I athlete turned WesternU veterinary student is bringing the lessons she learned on the court into veterinary medicine—and she already has her sights set on practice ownership.
Rachel Churilla | DVM Candidate, Class of 2028 | Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine
Rachel Churilla has never been particularly interested in sitting on the sidelines. Long before she was memorizing anatomy or thinking about becoming a practice owner, she was diving across volleyball courts at UC Davis. At just 5'1", Churilla competed for five years as an NCAA Division I libero and defensive specialist and was part of the university's inaugural Division I beach volleyball team.
It was an unlikely path for someone her height, but in many ways, that's the point. Churilla learned early that being the obvious choice and becoming the person who gets the opportunity aren't always the same thing. Athletics taught her how to compete when the odds weren't necessarily in her favor, how to take criticism without letting it destroy her confidence, and how to keep showing up long after motivation had worn off.
Now a DVM candidate in the Class of 2028 at Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine, she's discovering just how useful those lessons can be in vet school.
“I’ve always been someone who likes to stay involved, take on new challenges, and find ways to make an impact wherever I am,” Churilla says. “Being a college athlete was a huge part of my life and shaped a lot of who I am today. It taught me how to work under pressure, take feedback, and keep showing up even when things get hard. I think I’ve carried a lot of that mentality with me into veterinary school.”
The Athlete Never Really Left
Churilla describes herself with three words: resilience, discipline, and competitiveness. All three were forged long before veterinary school. Growing up as an athlete with her dad as her coach taught her that improvement often happens when nobody is watching—the extra repetition, the practice after practice, the willingness to come back after a bad performance and do it all again.
“Sports taught me from a young age how to be consistent, work hard even when no one is watching, handle setbacks, and always keep pushing myself,” she says. “Those qualities took me all the way to becoming a Division I athlete at 5’1”, and they’re still a huge part of how I approach vet school and life today.”
But one of the most important lessons Churilla has brought with her from athletics isn't about working harder. It's knowing when to walk away from the court.
Veterinary school has a way of expanding to fill every available minute. There is always another lecture to review, another exam coming, another club meeting to attend, another opportunity that feels too important to turn down. For students accustomed to achieving at a high level, it can become especially easy to believe that if they're not working, they're falling behind.
Churilla has decided she doesn't want to spend four years living that way.
Vet School Doesn't Have to Become Your Entire Identity
One of the ideas Churilla feels most strongly about is also one she wishes someone had told her before her first day: you do not have to make vet school your entire personality.
Before veterinary school, she worried about losing the built-in community she'd had through college athletics and Greek life. What she found instead was a different kind of community, built through classmates, clubs, leadership opportunities, conferences, networking, and the strange shared experience of becoming a veterinarian.
What she doesn't want to lose in the process is herself.
“Keep your hobbies, go on the trip, play the sport, go to the concert,” she says. “There will always be another exam you could be studying for.”
For Churilla, staying grounded usually involves movement and getting outside. After a stressful day, she's happiest taking a sunset walk with her Frenchie, Wrigley, playing beach volleyball, going for a run on the Strand, doing CrossFit or HYROX, relaxing at the beach, or getting into the ocean. Those aren't things she squeezes in when veterinary school is finished. They're part of how she makes veterinary school sustainable.
“Vet school can take over your brain if you let it, so having things that have absolutely nothing to do with veterinary medicine is really important to me,” she says. “Quality time with Wrigley, a beach day, and some volleyball with my friends can fix a lot.”
It's also part of a bigger belief she has about the profession. Churilla doesn't think having interests outside veterinary medicine makes someone less committed to becoming a veterinarian. She thinks it may ultimately make them better at it.
“The things that make you you outside of veterinary medicine are ultimately going to make you a better veterinarian,” she says.
She's Thinking Beyond the Exam
Churilla isn't only thinking about getting through veterinary school. She's already thinking about what comes afterward—and what kind of career she wants to create when she gets there.
She sees herself becoming a small animal veterinarian and eventually owning a practice. That goal has sparked an interest in a part of veterinary medicine that isn't always front and center in the DVM curriculum: business, marketing, and communications.
At WesternU, she served as Director of Marketing for her school's Veterinary Business Management Association chapter. The role gave her the chance to shape how the organization told its story, promote events, grow engagement, and encourage fellow students to start thinking about the business side of the profession before graduation.
For Churilla, business knowledge isn't something separate from being a good veterinarian. It's part of understanding how to create a career—and someday perhaps a practice—that actually works for the people inside it. She wants to practice medicine, but she also wants to understand how successful veterinary businesses are built, how teams are supported, how clients are reached, and how the profession can do a better job communicating its value.
Those questions matter even more to her because she believes veterinary medicine is facing a sustainability problem.
A Career People Can Afford to Love
Churilla has watched students enter veterinary school knowing they could eventually graduate with enormous amounts of debt. She's seen classmates manage an intense academic workload while trying to figure out what their financial future will look like. And she's familiar with the cultural expectation that because veterinary professionals love animals, they should somehow be willing to sacrifice almost everything else for the privilege of caring for them.
For a long time, that perception made her question whether she wanted to pursue veterinary medicine at all.
“I actually doubted myself for years about pursuing vet school because of the stereotype that vet med has to be your whole life, that you have to ‘live and breathe vet med’ to belong in this profession,” she says. “I don’t think it has to be that way.”
Churilla believes the profession needs to talk more seriously about financial education, business skills, mentorship, workplace culture, and what it takes to build careers that people can sustain for decades rather than simply survive for a few years. She's seen students entering the profession facing nearly half a million dollars in educational debt, a number she says is difficult even to comprehend.
“We need to make sure the career people have worked so hard to enter is one they can actually afford, enjoy, and stay in long-term,” she says.
For someone who wants to own a veterinary practice one day, that's more than a criticism of the profession. It's an early glimpse of the kind of leader she hopes to become.
Then Veterinary Medicine Took Her to South Africa
If Churilla needed proof that a veterinary degree could lead somewhere completely unexpected, she found it thousands of miles away from WesternU.
This summer, she traveled to South Africa for a wildlife veterinary medicine and conservation program. Suddenly, the student planning a career in small animal medicine was getting hands-on experience with lions, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, zebras, leopards, and other wildlife.
“There were moments where I genuinely thought, how is this my life right now?” she says.
The experience took her far outside the small animal world she had imagined for herself and reminded her that veterinary medicine is much bigger than any one job description. A DVM can lead to a neighborhood practice, a wildlife conservation program halfway around the world, a business, a leadership role, or a career that hasn't even occurred to you yet.
“It pushed me way outside of my normal small animal veterinary world and reminded me how huge this profession is and how many incredible things and opportunities you can do with a veterinary degree,” she says.
That willingness to step into unfamiliar territory has become something of a theme in Churilla's life. If she could talk to her younger self now, she'd tell her to stop worrying so much about having the future perfectly mapped out.
“Some of the best opportunities I’ve had were things I never could have planned for,” she says. “Keep saying yes to things that scare you and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s where I’ve built so much of my resilience and learned how to adapt and grow.”
She'd also tell herself to stop comparing her path with everyone else's, advice that may be particularly important in vet school, where being surrounded by high achievers can make it feel as though everyone else is somehow doing more.
Still Playing to Win
Had veterinary medicine not happened, Churilla suspects sports would still have found a way into her career. Her fantasy answer is becoming an Olympian or professional athlete. Her slightly more realistic answer is becoming a physical therapist specializing in sports medicine and rehabilitation.
Instead, she's becoming a veterinarian. But the athlete never really disappeared.
The lessons are still there every time she walks into an exam she doesn't feel completely ready for, receives feedback she didn't necessarily want to hear, or faces something in veterinary school that feels bigger than she expected. Division I athletics taught her that confidence doesn't mean everything goes perfectly. Sometimes it simply means knowing you'll come back tomorrow.
Now she's applying that same mindset to a much bigger game.
Churilla wants to practice small animal medicine. She wants to understand the business behind it. She wants to own a practice. She wants to advocate for a profession where people can work hard without surrendering every other part of their lives. And somewhere in between, she still wants time for Wrigley, the beach, volleyball, travel, and whatever unexpected opportunity comes next.
From competing as a 5'1" Division I athlete at UC Davis to working alongside rhinos and lions in South Africa, Churilla's path has already gone places she couldn't have planned.
And maybe that's the point.
Becoming a veterinarian doesn't require giving up the person you were before vet school. The athlete, traveler, entrepreneur, friend, dog mom, or whatever else exists underneath the white coat isn't getting in the way.
Those may be exactly the things that make you great once you put it on.
Know a veterinary student, veterinary technician, or new graduate doing incredible things? Nominate them for a future Vet Candy Rising Stars feature at myvetcandy.com.