The Friday before All Hallows Eve, participants from the College’s DVM and Vet Tech Programs fought for their lives at 2017’s Zombie Apocalypse. All over the College, participants raced in their teams to complete tasks before being eaten by a zombie and losing their mortality.
Candy-filled and ready to fight zombies with their veterinary medical powers, participants were split up into teams of five. Each team had a member from each class and they were organized by houses—Miracor, Murunoas, Omnimar, and Pramaya—with two teams from each house. “I love the way it brings together different classes and vet techs with challenging goals that require a little bit of everyone's knowledge,” says a student participant.
Divided and ready to conquer, the game began with five zombies. Knowing that the humans would be solving veterinary medicine mysteries, the zombies attempted to “feed” on them when they least expected it. To “feed,” the zombies tagged the humans. Fortunately for humans, they could “stun” zombies for two minutes with Nerf balls and run away—if they were fast enough.
In order to stop the apocalypse and zombies from taking over the world, the humans had to complete several veterinary medicine-related tasks throughout the College. Such tasks included radiology, neurology, pathology, and surgery stations in addition to epidemiology worksheets and crossword puzzles that had to be completed before the zombies caught up with them.
As humans completed their tasks, they were led to their next location. At the new locations, humans could find animals to help them survive—though the animals were tiny, plastic toy animals, they were mighty good protectors. The toy animals served multiple purposes. Food animals were collected for milk and meat, horses for transportation, dogs for protection, and cats for their nine lives. If students were lucky enough, they would find a vial to concoct an anti-viral formula to prevent those who were bitten by a zombie from becoming one. The ingredients were marbles that were scattered throughout the College.
Humans won it all when a team collected everything they needed to survive in addition to figuring out the password to the safety shelter. This team, as well as the team that had the most human members, were awarded prizes. Humans weren’t the only winners, though. Sam Leone from the DVM Class of 2020 won an award for “most feeds” by a zombie. Elis Fisk, DVM Class of 2019 also won an award for “best-dressed”, as did Mary Sinnamon, DVM Class of 2020 for “best effort” of the zombies.
“Huge shout out to Dr. Grabill for all her enthusiasm and help throughout the entire planning process. We couldn’t have put on such a successful event without her!”
Hosted by the One Health Club, facilitators are pleased with the outcome, and so are the students. “I loved that there seemed to be a challenge for every class in the curriculum—super cool!” says one student. Sponsors of the event included the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association, the College’s Office of Academic Programs and Student Success, Purina, and Oxbow.
Participants, facilitators, and sponsors are hopeful that the event will be an annual occurrence with increased participation and perhaps involvement from other medical schools at MSU. In addition, it’s hoped that since the event focuses on wellness, students and faculty will continue to interact in a setting outside the classroom, lab, or clinic, and have fun while still using critical thinking, just as they did during the Zombie Apocalypse.