Meet Chelsea Berkowitz, V26

A sunbittern from South America turned Chelsea Berkowitz, V26 (she/her) into a lifelong, avid birdwatcher.  

“When I was younger, I had this experience at the San Antonio Zoo where I kept hearing a bird calling in an open aviary. I remember hearing this bird and eventually finding her—it was such a beautiful call.”

She later interned at the San Antonio Zoo in the avian department and volunteered as a docent, leading zoo patrons in activities and engaging discussions. Though Chelsea was always drawn in by animals and growing up, all she wanted to be a vet, she rethought her career plans when she saw a kitten hit by a car, unsure if she could handle inevitably losing patients. 

In college, Chelsea prepared for a career in social work, earning her bachelor of arts degree at Boston University with a double major in psychology and sociology. She also planned to secure her master’s degree.

First, she detoured to give back to her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. She joined City Year, an AmeriCorps program, and tutored algebra for at-risk youth at a local high school. She also started volunteering at Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation (WRR) and at Thrive Youth Center, a new shelter for LGBTQ+ young adults experiencing homelessness. At the time, Thrive was the only LGBTQ+ youth center in the state and a large part of the southern United States. She remained committed to both organizations for the next several years.  

After wrapping up her work with City Year, Thrive hired Chelsea as a full-time case manager. For two years, she worked directly with the young adults before transitioning to become the fundraising and development director, a position she held for an additional three years. During the course of her work, she noticed how often deaf clients struggled to access services equally, so she considered becoming a social worker to work with deaf clients and took several classes to pursue a degree in American Sign Language Interpreting.  

Chelsea continued to volunteer at WRR, but the idea of working with animals still lingered at the back of her mind. “I eventually came to terms with what it meant to work with animals and the fact that you can’t save them all, but you do your best to help them and help them pass humanely if that is what’s best for them.” 

Chelsea’s career path then took what she describes as a “180 degree turn.” She enrolled at a local university to complete all of her science requirements for veterinary school while also working full-time as a veterinary assistant at a general practice clinic in San Antonio. 

“The practice saw a lot of exotic patients,” she recalls. “I fell in love with working with exotics.”  

After a year and a half as a veterinary assistant, Chelsea was asked to work in the fundraising and development department for the wildlife clinic she’d been volunteering with for six years. She came on board, finished up her classes in the meantime, and applied to veterinary school. She was accepted at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, her first choice, and started up in the fall of 2022. 

“I’ve loved being at Tufts,” she says. “It’s a very caring, supportive community. I’ve made some of my best friends here. So many of the professors graduated from Tufts, and they’re still here teaching and working—that says something to me.”  

Chelsea appreciates how accessible the professors are and points out that Dean Alastair Cribb even teaches some of her classes. Initially apprehensive about moving from a city to a small town, she’s found herself at home in Grafton’s beauty and nature- with ample bird-watching opportunities.

Chelsea is the president of Tufts PrideSVMC (Pride Student Veterinary Medical Community) and also the events coordinator on the National PrideSVMC board. PrideSVMC is associated with and funded by PrideVMC, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ professionals in the veterinary community. PrideSVMC has chapters at 20 veterinary schools across the country, supporting LGBTQ+ students within their universities. 

“I started as a chapter coordinator for PrideSVMC, working with different schools that have pride chapters,” she says. “In my past life, I did a lot of fundraising and development for nonprofits. It’s not my life calling, but I still enjoy doing that.” 

Chelsea meets regularly with the PrideVMC and PrideSVMC national boards to support the individual school chapters, address any concerns brought by students, and award scholarships to members. She also planned a PrideSVMC happy hour at last year’s Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA) conference at the University of Tennessee and is currently setting up an event for the upcoming conference next spring. She would like to join the PrideVMC board once she becomes a veterinarian. 

“As someone in the LGBTQ+ community, it’s important to me to support this community in whatever capacity I can,” Chelsea says. “Working at Thrive, I saw kids who didn’t have many queer role models or examples of queer folks in different careers. Once I’m a doctor, I want to go back to Thrive and show young people that there is a place for them in any career they want to pursue. I feel that the field of veterinary medicine still has a long way to go in terms of diversity, but I want to do my part, representing loud and proud in the queer community that veterinary medicine is a place for LGBTQ+ folks.” 

Chelsea works two jobs to help finance her studies, as a veterinary assistant at the VCA Westboro and Cummings School’s Webster Family Library. She returned to San Antonio the past two summers to work at another VCA clinic. She was previously the exotics chair of Tufts WAZE (Wildlife, Aquatics, Zoo, and Exotic Medicine) Club and involved with JAVS (Jewish Association of Veterinary Students).  

As she progresses into her third year at Cummings School, Chelsea is looking forward to her clinical rotations, especially in ZCAM (Zoological Companion Animal Medicine), the Wildlife Clinic, and ECC (Emergency and Critical Care). She’s considering specializing in exotics or avian medicine, possibly working—and volunteering—in an emergency room or wildlife clinic. 

“I’m excited for all of it—to get different experiences. I’m not 100 percent set on one thing, and I’m open to finding something else I didn’t know I might like.” 

Outside of her classes, work, and volunteer activities, Chelsea bird watches around Grafton, likes crafting, especially cross-stitching, and eventually hopes to get back into singing. She used to be in a women’s barbershop chorus. 

“I am not the traditional student—I’m 32 and have had almost ten years between undergrad and vet school,” Chelsea says, “but all my experiences add together and will help me become a good doctor. I’ve worked with all different kinds of people, from wealthy donors to young adults who are experiencing homelessness and everyone in between. I like working with people, teaching and connecting with clients. This is where I want to be. I feel good knowing that veterinary medicine kept drawing me back.”