Celebrating Diversity Month is about recognizing and honoring diversity in our communities and around the world. At VEG ER for Pets, we celebrate the tapestry that makes up our employees. We call ourselves VEGgies, and that puts us all on level ground! Every voice is valued and heard. In fact, we remain a cohesive culture, not in spite of, but because of our uniqueness and diverse backgrounds.
In this blog, we speak with VEG Shift Lead River Medina, who tells of their experiences of belonging to two diverse communities.
What is your role at VEG ER for Pets?
RIVER MEDINA: My title was Veterinary Assistant and now I'm a Shift Lead. I've been in veterinary medicine since 2017, and at VEG for three years.
Can you share your background with our readers?
Well, I grew up in a very small town in Tennessee and I hold that very dear to me. Being Puerto Rican and growing up in the South are very big parts of who I am.
However, I feel like I am just getting to know more about what it means to be Puerto Rican. I didn't really grow up around any of my family when I was growing up in Tennessee, so it was a very different experience for me back then.
There was a pretty sizable Mexican community where I grew up but Puerto Ricans were non-existent. I remember when I was younger, me and my family were in a store and this other family approached us.
“Oh, my gosh! Are you guys Puerto Rican?!”
"Yeah, we thought we were the only ones out here!”
And they literally became lifelong friends of ours, just from having that shared background.
Fast forward to what it’s like now, here on the East coast. I’m completely surrounded by my mom and my father's side of the family. So it's a different part of me that I get to explore in my adulthood. This isn’t to say anything bad about growing up in Tennessee, it was really amazing. I had a lot of unique experiences that a lot of people here can't fathom.
Growing up in a rural area surrounded by animals is what really spurred my love for them and wanting to help them. Outside of work, I really do love to be outside in nature, hiking with my dog and my family.
I also like to be involved in community work. I am transgender, and before I had my surgery, I did a lot of queer community things. I would host a bunch of queer-centered events, like, speed dating, parties, movie nights, or cooking dinners with other people in our community. I really found it important to get together and connect with everybody. After surgery, I've calmed my life and have been focusing a lot on work.
How did you get into veterinary medicine?
I've always wanted to be in vet med, and have always worked with animals. In 2017, I was a manager at a doggy daycare, and when that place fell under, I decided to take a month to think about what I wanted to do next. I knew I still wanted to work with animals, and I thought maybe it was time I began to reach my goal of working in veterinary medicine.
Conveniently down the block there was a veterinary hospital that was hiring. A friend of a friend helped me get the job. I was a new assistant there and I've been working my way up since then.
How has your experience impacted your journey through vet med?
It has definitely been a very unique experience. I started at VEG when I began medically transitioning. A transition is very awkward, I felt like I was going through the duckling phase in front of everybody. And being here in the Northeast is my first time being surrounded by people who looked like me, which is nice.
It's great to really be comfortable in my space. Growing up it was really rare to see anybody who looked like me, anybody who thought like me. But the minute I got to where I live now (I've been here for 10 years now), every space I've been in has been filled with LatinX people.
But even though I am surrounded by people who look like me, at VEG I felt welcomed as a person from the LGBTQIA+ community. Even during my interview, I walked into VEG and I kind of just immediately felt comfortable. I really felt like there were a lot more people here who were very much like myself and had my same background.
How have your colleagues supported you, especially through your transition, in feeling included and valued at work?
It was definitely a lot, obviously. But my team has been really amazing with making sure that they were asking the right—and appropriate—questions along the way and using the correct pronouns.
Fellow VEGgies (VEG employees) have created a safe space. With this level of support, I feel like I can be a role model to whoever comes after me.
Have you faced any challenges or misconceptions about being transgender in your professional life? How have you navigated them?
When I first started at VEG, I feel like I fell under the umbrella of what it meant to present as a queer person. Some people were able to see it more than they are now. It almost feels a little backwards at this point. It's strange, it seems harder after the surgery for customers to use my correct pronouns.
I want to make sure that our hospital stays a safe place for people like me. There have been a handful of times where I do get misgendered at work. It's mostly from people who don’t really know me. Because of that, we’ve been asking everybody at work to wear their pronouns on their name badges, not just me, and it's gotten a lot better. I’ve since had really great interactions with customers who recognize who I am and what I represent.
What advice would you give to someone struggling to embrace their identity, especially in a professional setting?
My advice is something that I actually am still learning to do more of: Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself. Take up your space, be who you are, and be very proud about it. Don't let people making mistakes and holding misconceptions, or be someone who holds you back from being who you want to be.
At the end of the day, it's your body, it's your life, and you shouldn't let people's perception of you get in the way of that. It's easy to take all these things that people are perceiving of you as and shrink yourself down for it. And that's not healthy. It's important to really stand up for yourself and be who you are.
What were some pivotal moments that helped you embrace your identity with confidence?
So many pivotal moments! From where I was to where I am now. A coworker was very quick to do the switch between who they knew me as before compared to who I am now. And every change I went through, they were there empowering and affirming me. I remember I came back with a little mustache and she was there smiling like, “Okay, I see you!.” Having people who truly support you is so important.
You mentioned that everyone on your team wears pronoun pins to create a safe place. What other ways can allies be more supportive or encourage people to feel safe to show up their authentic selves at work?
It's so important not to just be supportive when that person is in the room but your colleagues to more or less put their foot down when they see people who are discriminating against you or disrespecting you when you're not present.
How do you think the veterinary field can become more inclusive and welcoming for non-binary and multicultural professionals?
It's important for us who are here to have our moment and be spotlighted for the rest of our industry to see. It’s important for companies like VEG to really empower people within our community. This way everybody else who's around us are able to see themselves at a company like this and in positions like I am. They need to know that it is possible, to not only be themselves, but to flourish, and have overpowering support from your team.
You've come such a long way. What advice would you give your younger self?
It’s funny you ask because there was this trend on Tiktok where the prompt was, “If I sat down for coffee with my younger self.” There was a lot of fear that I had as a child and I had no idea where it came from. So I think if I were to look back and give advice for my younger self, it’d be to really listen to everything that's happening in the back of my mind and pay attention to it. Because, back then, I was suppressing a lot and putting things to the side out of fear. So I’d say just sit with that and pay attention to where it's coming from. Delve into the background noise. Pay attention to it and make peace with it.
FIND A JOB IN VET MED WHERE YOU FEEL SUPPORTED
VEG places an emphasis on support for professional and personal growth. Check out our benefits page and the many ways VEG helps their VEGgies thrive in a long-term career and grow where they want to go. Get started today on your vet med job search. At VEG we find a way to say yes, so you can do the unexpected. Wherever you want your career to go, we empower you to take it there, one yes at a time.
