40 Under 40: Dr. Rachel E. Palis ’10

Arcadia taught me not to be afraid to take a different path and open up my life to the world. I was lucky to be able to participate in the First-Year Study Abroad Experience in Scotland, and in my junior year, I completed an internship at a zoo in Australia. Both study abroad experiences changed my life and how I viewed the world and most definitely gave me the travel bug. 

After Arcadia, when I was applying to veterinary school, I opened my search to outside the United States and attended Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in St. Kitts, West Indies. While at Ross, I took advantage of additional travel opportunities, presenting research in Jamaica and studying wildlife veterinary care in South Africa. I completed my final clinical year of vet school at Louisiana State University. During that year, I traveled to Utah and Nevada for internships in shelter medicine and had the opportunity to travel back to South Africa. 

I’m back in Philadelphia and am a licensed vet in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Currently, I am an associate veterinarian at The Animals’ Hospital of Levittown, but I do relief work at multiple nearby hospitals in New Jersey and hope to continue to expand to other hospitals in other states.  Arcadia was the pathway that led me to the world. This is just the beginning of my exploration. 

My hope is to become a well-established traveling relief veterinarian. I’d like to have a home base clinic while also taking longer relief gigs in different states across the United States to not only get the chance to travel but to also get to work with different people and animals.