CHANCE Fellow Pursuing Passion to Improve Animal Health and Welfare

Natalia Candelaria, 2015 CHANCE Costa Rica and Panama Fellow and 2017 Penn State University Park graduate with a BS in Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, was just accepted in not one but two veterinary schools. She will be pursuing her passion at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in the fall. For the past 3 ½ years, she worked full time as a critical care veterinary technician in the intensive care unit at the Veterinary Emergency and Referral Group (VERG), a 24/7 emergency and specialty animal hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Since she was a kid, she has always had a passion for helping the environment, animals, and people, but she credits her CHANCE experience for inspiring her even more to find ways to give back and for introducing her to numerous ways to defend and preserve biological diversity by upholding the standards of animal welfare. Natalia's future career goal in the veterinary field is to specialize in emergency and critical care, while also aiding in wildlife and conservation efforts!