DALLAS––After his military service, Tyler Russell worked as a welder and a pipefitter.

But you might say that pipefitting wasn’t the right fit for Russell. Thus in 2022, he returned to an earlier interest and enrolled in Gaston College’s veterinary technician program. Ranked among the country’s best such programs for six consecutive years, Gaston College’s vet tech program and its top-notch facilities and instructors made it an easy choice for him.

Russell is now working toward becoming a registered veterinary technician, and he hopes his internship with the Animal Eye Clinic in Matthews will help him transition to full-time employment there. He’s slated to be among Gaston College’s graduates in August. But he’ll walk with his classmates at the graduation ceremony in May of next year. He then plans to earn his credentials as a veterinary technician specialist in ophthalmology and/or anaesthesia while working at the clinic.

“I need to continuously feed the fire to keep moving forward,” Russell recently observed, “and the college and my instructors have given me all the resources I need to burn as fast or as bright as I desire. Without a doubt, the vet tech program is the perfect environment for fostering technical skills and creating critical thinking professionals for veterinary medicine. The combination of knowledge and hands-on experience I am receiving at Gaston College is setting me up for a rewarding, successful career.”