Editor’s Note: This story is part of our series “Helping Hands”, which aims to spotlight Johnson Countians doing good in the background of their community. If you have an idea for someone to spotlight in a future “Helping Hands” story, email us at stories@johnsoncountypost.com.
Johnson County native Maggie Chapin’s passion for helping animals goes back beyond memory.
Growing up in Shawnee, she said, her family was no stranger to animals — dogs, cats, horses, you name it. So it makes sense that as a student at Longwood University in Virginia, she’d pursue veterinary medicine.
Since students like herself in the Honors College at Longwood can choose to study abroad, Chapin said, she’d been looking for a way to use that opportunity to learn more about animals and help them in the process.
Last summer, she took the chance to do that on the other side of the world. Through the international Loop Abroad veterinary shadowing program, Chapin spent the summer helping care for elephants — an experience that she said left her with many lessons learned.
Chapin volunteered with other students abroad
Open to pre-veterinary college students across the world, the program brings small groups of 10-20 students on-site for hands-on learning opportunities. For Chapin, the program had a beneficial mix of learning about and serving the animals she would be spending time with. Ultimately, she said that’s what drew her to it.
“It just really stood out to me as a great program, because I got to work with animals and learn basic veterinary skills,” she said. “But also the service part, I thought that was really cool because not a lot of programs have that.”
Chapin worked with multiple different animals
While in Thailand, Chapin took on many responsibilities, including helping with veterinary procedures like spays and neuters at a dog and cat clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
But the main focus of her volunteer work was helping Elephant Nature Park — a sanctuary for over 100 rescued elephants in northern Thailand. Responsibilities there included things like preparing the elephants’ food, assisting with veterinary tasks like administering vitamins, doing physical exams, monitoring heart rates and doing wound care for the elephants.
“We did get to work with them pretty closely, which was really cool,” Chapin said.
In addition to the hands-on learning experience Chapin got, she also gained new perspectives on cultural norms for animals outside the United States — including learning about “temple cats” and “temple dogs” that are taken care of by monks at Buddhist temples in Thailand.
From there, she learned more about how elephants have been exploited through logging and circus operations.
“I hadn’t really realized how badly elephants had been exploited in the past and still are,” she said. “It was really touching and emotional actually to (learn about) that.”
The elephants she encountered at the sanctuary in Thailand were rescued from such situations, she said.
“For some of them, you could see — in their physical condition — the trauma from their past,” she said. “It’s really sad, but at the same time, to see them living such a better life, and to be able to help them with that, it was just amazing. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
Volunteering abroad helped Chapin as a student
The work that Chapin and her fellow volunteers did was for the betterment of the animals, but in some ways, working with the animals helped her as well.
“To be able to help and make a difference somewhere so far away from home was just incredible,” she said. “Just all the knowledge that I gained from this experience — I learned stuff I never would have learned if I hadn’t gone there.”
Chapin said her time abroad gave her tangible work experience that she’ll carry with her into her veterinary studies and the start of her career. She also hopes to spend more time volunteering with animals, in more local environments like shelters.
Up to this point, she said, her time in Thailand was the most hands-on aid she’d given to animals so far.
“I think that it has prepared me a lot for what I’m going to be doing in the future,” she said. “It really solidified that that’s what I want to do and that I know I can do it.”
More Helping Hands: This father-daughter team from Shawnee is selling candy for a cause
Know someone who deserves a spotlight for lending a hand? Reach out to us at stories@johnsoncountypost.com.
