Paul Crooks- Success Story - Division of Education, Research and Technology

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WRITTEN TESTIMONIAL

Dr. Paul Crooks

Veterinarian

The Educational Path to Veterinary Medicine in Trinidad and Tobago

My name is Paul Crooks. I am a public servant employed by the Tobago House of Assembly, Division of Food Security, Natural Resources, the Environment and Sustainable Development and one of the cadre of Caribbean One Health Leaders. I am also the founder and owner of the Tobago Animal Hospital, a mixed animal practice that caters for every species of domesticated animal.

I currently serve as the President Elect of the Trinidad and Tobago Veterinary Association and was the past President and Public Relations Officer of the Caribbean Veterinary Medical Association.

My early life and education took me all over the place. I was born in Trinidad but at the age of five, I relocated to Tobago with my family, to live at my father’s home. While there, I attended Bon Accord Government Primary School but moved again to Barbados, where I completed the final two years of Primary School and my first Common Entrance Examination. At the age of eleven though, I returned to Tobago and was required to re-sit the Common Entrance Examination there, after the commencement of the new school year.

Despite this setback, my continued diligence in academics permitted me entry into Bishop’s Secondary School about five weeks late. Logical, perhaps to a fault, my interests, even then, lay in Math and Science. I therefore chose subjects accordingly, including Geography, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Additional Mathematics.

Although I was not the most studious Secondary School pupil, I performed well enough in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Ordinary Level Examinations in 2001, to be granted the opportunity to pursue Advanced Level Examinations in Geography, Physics and Chemistry.

Notwithstanding this feat, my scores at the Advanced Level Examination were unremarkable and did not reflect my potential.

Given my relatively poor performance, I began a job search, submitted applications to various local financial institutions and convinced myself that I had no other alternative but to resign myself to the pursuit of a career that I did not want, nor one that would challenge me. However, in 2003, the year I completed Advanced Level Examinations, my father informed me of a scholarship opportunity being offered by the Tobago House of Assembly, which he had heard about on the radio.

The Tobago House of Assembly was seeking prospective students in Veterinary Medicine. They were willing to pay tuition in full, as well as provide some finances to support living expenses, on the condition that the future professionals would commit to return to the island, to contribute to its development.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to pursue a career I had previously not even considered!

If I may digress a bit and provide further insight into my past, ever since I was a child, I had been keen on pets – dogs and cats mostly – and I was constantly curious about medicine and animal welfare.

I was interested in medicine because my mother was a Nurse and her compassion and nurturing traits were a strong influence on me as a person. Additionally, my father was a Pastor, who preached care for others and assisting the less fortunate. He therefore also helped to shape and mould my life philosophy and character, where caring about others was central to the theme.

My ever-growing curiosity and desire to solve puzzles, also meant that the challenge of diagnosing a difficult case and making a patient feel better, strongly appealed to me.

I was interested in animal welfare because honestly, I have always preferred the company of innocent animals to people, as, human beings could prove themselves on occasion to be manipulative, unkind and not trustworthy, I considered animals to be the complete opposite.

A career that would allow me to pursue both my interests in medicine and animal welfare would have therefore been a dream!

In light of this, I felt extremely fortunate to learn that there was potentially a way for me to pursue a career that combined my passions. I found myself feeling excited again at life and where my future might take me. I therefore applied to pursue this career path and waited impatiently for the outcome. Eventually, I got the news that I had been accepted and was elated to know that I would be commencing the Pre-Health Professions Programme at the University of the West Indies in 2003.

Until the Tobago House of Assembly offered it as a scholarship, I had no idea that Veterinary Medicine was something I could pursue in Trinidad and Tobago. Nevertheless, when the opportunity presented itself, I joyously embarked on my academic journey with the valuable support of family and friends.

In particular, during my studies, my brother (who was pursuing Electrical Engineering at the time), lived with me at a shared apartment and he was always very supportive of me and my studies, as I was of his. Additionally, while I was in the Pre-Health Programme, I had the privilege to meet a few other scholarship winners from Tobago and we all pushed each other to excel. We stayed up late to complete our lab reports together and remained friends throughout our studies and even thereafter.

My support network, of course, also included my parents and only expanded as I entered the School of Veterinary Medicine in 2004.

On the whole, the University of the West Indies, School of Veterinary Medicine is where I finally found my academic and professional footing. Fuelled by the necessary combination of passion, interest, backing and the kind of freedom I had been seeking for years, I achieved the potential I knew I had all along.

I was nineteen years old when I began and the five years following, I saw myself grow from a nervous teenager, into a confident man. I performed exceedingly well and while there, I made many lifelong friends. I was elected President of the Veterinary Students Association of Trinidad and Tobago and was found to be the best overall student in the Fourth Academic Year. At the end of my studies, I was elected Best Student in Small Animal Medicine at the Oath-Taking Ceremony.

A few months after completion, I was happy to receive employment in December 2009 from the Tobago House of Assembly at the then Division of Food Production, Forestry and Fisheries. I have remained a Veterinary Officer since then and have had the pleasure of serving Tobagonian farmers for over a decade.

In retrospect, all of my accomplishments could have never been realized without the privilege of having my friends, colleagues, family and the opportunities I was able to access and utilize. Hard work was only a part of the formula. Thankfully, I have learned, that genuine and selfless help can be found in many places.

I was helped when I needed it most and now I am in a position to reach out to others. Accordingly, Tobagonians that may be interested in Veterinary Medicine, should feel free to contact me or any other staff member at the Tobago Animal Hospital for mentorship.

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