Wokeness is everywhere — even in animal medicine. Case in point: a giant chunk of veterinary change recently devoted to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

On December 12th, the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) awarded nearly $100,000 across 18 “diversity scholarships.”

“These scholarships, sponsored by Merck Animal Health,” the online announcement says, “support AAVMC’s efforts as a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in veterinary medicine.”

About the Merck Animal Health Diversity Leadership Scholarship:

[It] recognizes second- and third-year students in good academic and professional standing at an AAVMC member institution. These eighteen awardees have contributed to enhancing diversity and inclusion through course projects, co-curricular activities, outreach, domestic and community engagement, research, and/or developed an early reputation for influencing others to be inclusive. Each recipient will be awarded a one-time scholarship payment in the amount of $5,000.

These days, it’s a race to moral triumph. Those who can prove their social justice bonafides will be rewarded:

College’s Equity Plan Creates Affirmative Action Toolkits and ‘Diversity’ Curriculum, Prioritizes Hiring LGBT

New York Private University Is Hiring, but Not if You Won’t Swear Fealty to Social Justice

Major University Eyes Forcing Professors to Pledge to ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ or Have Their Tenures Denied

Medical Instructors May Soon Forfeit Tenure — Unless They Can Literally Prove Their Wokeness

And modern enlightenment has certainly found its way to the animal world:

Just in Time for Mother’s Day: The World Gets Its First Nonbinary-Named Insect

Woke in the Water: Shark Advocates Call for an End to the Word ‘Attacks’ in Favor of ‘Interactions’

Legal Journal Publishes Plea for Hate Speech Laws Protecting Animals

Back to the AAVMC’s announcement, $6,000 was also awarded via the Patricia M. Lowrie Diversity Leadership Scholarship — to a student “recognized for showing exemplary promise as a future leader and for significant contributions to enhancing diversity and inclusion in academic veterinary medicine.”

AAVMC Director for Marketing and Communications Susan Leigh emphasized to Campus Reform the importance of investing in those from “marginalized backgrounds”:

“This scholarship provides continued support to students from historically underrepresented and/or marginalized backgrounds. The students recognized with these scholarships…have made it a point to not only advance diversity by their very presence by providing leadership on DEI issues across many institutions, thereby having a positive impact on academic veterinary medicine more broadly. … It is our belief that while scholarship criteria can highlight and emphasize diversity, the lack of a diverse pool of scholarship applicants is a primary barrier to believing any scholarship can improve representative diversity in any sector of the profession.”

So if you’re concerned about the race, sexual preference, or gender identity of the person mining your wiener dog’s jewels, you’ll be glad to know there are deep and directive pockets that care, too.

-ALEX

See more content from me:

WATCH: Eight-Year-Old Tosses His Hockey Stick Onto the Class Pile, Teacher Retaliates and Knocks His Tooth Out

New York Private University Is Hiring, but Not if You Won’t Swear Fealty to Social Justice

Liberal Arts School Launches DEI Certificate Program as the ‘Justice’ Industry Engulfs the World

Find all my RedState work here.

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