Alamogordo High student earns scholarship, pursues dream of being a veterinarian

Savannah Veith, a recent 2023 Alamogordo High School graduate, will now take on her first year as a College Freshman at New Mexico State University (NMSU).

Her efforts to get into the school and provide for herself while in college did not come easily, though. She applied for dozens of scholarships. One she is quite proud of earning is the New Mexico Student Board of Education scholarship, totaling $1,000.

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Veith, who applied for and received multiple scholarships during her senior year of high school, said her drive came from her dream of becoming a veterinarian.

When Veith was six years old, she worked alongside her stepmother at a vet clinic in Las Cruces. Veith said the clinic she worked at catered to all sorts of animals and not just your everyday house pets. Veith had the opportunity to work on horses, skunks and a number of other animals.

One memory Veith said she remembers working on a lot of exotic animals like porcupines and camels as well.

"I remember once, working on a skunk," Veith said. "I helped de-skunk a skunk, so they would not be able to spray anymore. It was a pet, someone's pet skunk, and they wanted to do it just so it did not hurt anyone when they had visitors, so it basically couldn't spray anyone."

Veith said one event she holds near and dear to her heart was when she was able to work on her own pet alongside her stepmom.

"So, Rory, my dog at the time, was a basset hound that lasted me about 15 years. I was 15 years old when we would have celebrated her 15th birthday on Valentine's Day that year, but we had found out she had cancer for the second time," Veith said. "We had to put her down because her heart could not handle the surgery. It was horrible, but I was happy because I knew my stepmom did everything she could to keep her alive. I just knew it would have hurt her more if we continued to try."

Veith said she knew she would have to push herself a little harder in school, although that came easily for her.

"Although I knew I needed certain requirements for applications like good grades and essays, the grades were never a problem for me," Veith said. "I made sure I maintained what I had to if I wanted to get the scholarships I wanted, it was mostly because I wanted to make sure I could do all of it on my own."

Veith wanted nothing more than to be able to support herself financially going into college.

"I had jobs here and there to make sure I could have some money, but I wanted to make sure I had money secured for my classes. I made sure to keep my grades up so I never had to work hard if I maintained what I already had," Veith said.

Outside of her academics, Veith found ways to contribute more to her high school by becoming the manager of the boys basketball team.

For many kids in extracurricular activities, coaches and leaders monitor their students to maintain their grades in order to participate. Varsity Coaches James Bowman and Jeremy Knee said they never had this problem with Veith.

Bowman and Knee agreed that Veigh needed little to no help with either her classwork or her work as manager of the basketball team.

"When we first met her (Veigh) she kept to herself and was definitely the type of girl who kept her head down," Bowman said. "But she grew out of her shell, and you know she went to being someone who knew nothing about basketball to asking me who I thought was going to win last year's NBA finals and we had a whole conversation about it."

Bowman said she was a student they never had to worry about.

"Even though I was on top of everything, I had no idea what I was doing with basketball at first. It took me two days to really understand the gamebook and the roster," Veith said. "At first I didn't know much so, I was like you're going to have to teach me all this."

Veith said once she got the hang of it, it came naturally to her. She said she would wake up every morning at 6 a.m. to prepare for the practices and her only mornings off were Sundays.

Although it was strenuous, Veith said it helped her gain a routine and a passion for the sport. Bowman agreed and said that although Veith contributed much to the sport, he could see the work she was capable of producing outside of the team.

"She was very focused on finishing her studies, working with the school board, working with us, of course," Bowman said. "But I think that fast-paced environment really gave her that sense of drive that she already had to prepare for her future."

Knee agreed with Bowman and said Veith never needed someone to hover over her as she was capable of working hard on her own.

"She is a self-motivated and driven person who needed little to no motivation from me or the coaching staff to do a great job for us for 2 years," Knee said.

Veith will begin her first year at NMSU fall of 2023 and is eager to continue her studies and follow her dream of becoming a veterinarian.

"After my five years of school here I want to study abroad and get into a good vet school in Europe," Veith said. "If I am able to, I want to stay over there and have my own clinic helping animals of all sizes. But for now, I have worked extremely hard to get to where I am now and I’m so excited for the future that I’m building myself."

Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on twitter at @Juan36Corr.

This article originally appeared on Alamogordo Daily News: Alamogordo High grad earns scholarship, chases dream of being a vet