At only age 17, senior Noemi “Nemo” Cazares has earned her Veterinarian’s Assistant’s Certificate. It sounds easy enough, but it isn’t. Cazares had to take a course called Vet Med One which required her to complete 300 hours of volunteer service and 200 more in class hours. And on top of the 500 hours of work, she had to take a 100 question test over more than just cats and dogs.

“Well, the test requires you to know about not only dogs and cats, like people think, but about livestock, domestic animals, and exotic aniamls,” Cazares says. “You have to know about what size of needles to give what type of animal. You need to know what anesthesia machines are for and how to use them. Also you need to know the names of the instruments and their Latin names, for the root meaning, such as itis, [meaning] inflammation.”

The only downfall of all the work put into it is that she can’t even use it yet because she isn’t of legal age. But when she finally is allowed to use it she can, “talk to the clients about their animal’s health and give them advice on nutrition.” It also allows her to restrain animals for proedures and help the clients with any questions they have. But she can’t diagnose or prescibe the animals any medication because she isn’t a certified veterinarian.

Her dreams of becoming a veterinarian are becoming a reality because she decided to get a jump start on it in high school.

“I thought it would be better to start earlier and it looks better on a resume and it increases my chances of getting in on vet school which has a rejection rate of 80%,” she says.

Even as a young girl Cazares had the hopes and dreams of becoming a vet.

“I want to be a veterinarian because ever since I was seven years old I was always interested in animals. They fascinated me the way they all kinda had their own super powers and super abilities,” she said. “I know this sounds a little ridiculous but take cats for instance, most of them whenever they fall they can land on their feet. Humans can’t do that, they’ll die.”