Some veterinary students around the world stand out as special, possibly destined for a leadership position in the veterinary or biomedical sciences. These students are not only at the top of their class but show other exceptional qualities that set them apart, such as being an Olympic-caliber athlete, a female Navy pilot who served in the Gulf War, a published author of numerous scientific papers, or a Ph.D. in molecular biology.

These are some of the students from this and last year's crop in the Leadership Program for Veterinary Students in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. After a highly competitive selection process, some two dozen veterinary students from around the globe come to Ithaca for the summer to be groomed as potential academic or research leaders in veterinary science.

"The program targets students who are the best of the best -- they have superb academic records but also have achieved things in their lives that suggest they could be future veterinary medicine faculty members or leading research scientists in government or industry," says Douglas D. McGregor, M.D., associate dean for research and graduate education, professor of immunology, and director of the Leadership Program.

Amy Schein, 26, of Scarsdale, N.Y., is one of this year's 24 students. Although her fellow students came from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands and South Africa, Schein is one of the four Cornell veterinary medicine students in the program. She had a near-perfect (3.9) grade point average at Georgetown University where she was an English major and Japanese scholar and had spent a summer in the Israeli army in a basic training program. However, after spending a year in Australia touring wildlife conservation parks, visiting zoos and cleaning schools in an aborigine village where few whites ventured, and then working in the Bronx Zoo's histology laboratory, her future plans shifted toward veterinary medicine.

With only one science course in her undergraduate career, Schein attended and excelled in Columbia University's premed post-baccalaureate program for three years, catching up in the sciences and working as a teaching assistant.

"I really enjoyed teaching though I don't know what field I want to go into yet," says Schein, who is entering her second year in the D.V.M. program. "In the meantime, though, there is so much new and interesting material I'm being exposed to. I'm keeping my mind open as I hear all the veterinarians who have gone into different fields telling us about the different options available."

Much of the new material Schein is exposed to comes from her research project. Each student is linked with a faculty mentor and active research project to give him or her the opportunity to apply investigative strategies and glean an insight into how a research laboratory uses its professional and material resources. Schein works with Bendicht Pauli, chair of the veterinary pathology department, studying adhesion molecules and cancer metastases.

The students also participate in a wide range of activities geared to developing leadership qualities -- such as technical, communication and critical thinking skills -- and to exploring ethical and professional issues. For example, they are trained in chemical and radiation safety; discuss biomedical ethics, the scientific method and leadership responsibilities; participate in a creativity workshop; and hear presentations on how to judge a good residency and research program and how to critically review scientific manuscripts.

They also participate in a career day during which research scientists talk about their careers. In addition, the students can speak privately with prominent veterinary leaders, such as deans and faculty members of other veterinary colleges, and industry and government research scientists.

In another component of the program, the students spent two full days in Washington, D.C., touring research facilities and meeting with senior scientists and administrators at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Constantin VonderHeyden, 21, came to the program from South Africa where he played championship hockey, chaired numerous societies at his university, including the environmental awareness group and a snake club, and was one of seven students elected from a student body of 560 to serve on the student council. A fly fisherman for 16 years and a rock climber, VonderHeyden spent two months recently touring Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique hiking, fishing and exploring the natural environment.

"I'll probably do research or specialize -- I want to do something that will really challenge me mentally. I can't see myself being a veterinarian, doing vaccinations and spaying by rote," says VonderHeyden whose research project with Linda Nowak, associate professor of pharmacology, focuses on figuring out the molecular makeup of brain glutamate receptor channels. These receptor channels are found only in embryos and may play an important role in the developing embryo.

Felicity Cole, who came to the program from Sydney University in Australia, has also seen more of the world than most veterinary students. While in high school, she was chosen as one of the top 300 science students of Australia to be part of a national youth science program. Later hired as a staff member of the program and then later promoted to coordinator running the program, Cole toured Russia as a representative of the program.

"I've always loved animals and science so it was a natural thing to combine the two in veterinary medicine. I love the challenge of medicine -- it's like being a detective," says Cole who works with Dr. David Robertshaw on respiratory physiology, specifically whether oxygen delivery to the tissues is inhibited by exercise-induced heat and alkalosis.

A final objective of the program is to allow students to participate in many interactive projects with one another. "The idea is get the students working together now so that in the future, when they are in leadership positions, they will form a professional network and continue to interact in solving problems on a global basis," concluded McGregor.

The program is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Fundacion Purina, the Merck Foundation, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, the Dorothy Russell Havemeyer Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation, and the Marilyn M. Simpson Trust.