Hi, Class of 2017 and friends.

 

As many of us gear up to attend our 5th-year class reunion, it weighs heavily that one of our classmates will not be there - Dr. Sam Schwalje. On August 9th, 2020, we all lost a loving daughter, devoted sister (to dog and humans alike), cool aunt, beloved girlfriend, incredibly talented doctor, peerless cat, rat, and gecko mom, and irreplaceable best friend.

 

I first met Sam virtually - I had made the huge decision to give up my job as a supervisor at the Bronx Zoo and chase my crazy zoo vet dreams (I now practice at the ASPCA, so, plans change), and much to my surprise, was accepted to Cornell. I knew no one, nor did I have any familiarity with the area, and was looking for housing. So I emailed the newly generated incoming class listserve, saying that my two guinea pigs and I were in search of a new home. I got a few responses, but the one that stood out the most was from a recent Cornell graduate, who said that she’d been apartment hunting, but her recent application had been rejected because the landlord did not want to accept a tenant with pet rats. So she was going to apply for an apartment in a different complex, creatively re-identify her rats as “long-tailed hamsters,” and if I was okay with being her accomplice in this housing application white lie, I had a room in her apartment. Her email was the first one I replied to - clearly, this was someone I needed to get to know better. Sam and I moved in together and became incredibly close - I honestly could not have made it through vet school without her support. She pushed me and all her friends to study a little more, work a little harder, stay a little later in pursuit of becoming a better doctor. Sam's endless compassion for animals and her courage to speak up when she perceived something was inhumane was inspiring, to say the least.  

 

Sam had a long history of a love for animals, particularly rats, pocket pets, and other animals often underserved by the small animal community, which had led her to veterinary medicine. She loved all creatures, and was a vocal advocate for any animal she felt was being mistreated. A long-practicing vegan, one of her favorite undergraduate memories was visiting Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen the week of Thanksgiving, when the farm would host a plant-based meal in honor of their resident turkeys. While in vet school, Sam spent many hours meeting with faculty at the college, and personnel in the East Campus Research Facility to find ways to provide better housing and enrichment for the vet school’s teaching dogs and cats, after she was troubled at seeing the bleak state of their housing setups. She created a rotating volunteer schedule, where students could sign up to spend time socializing the animals. Today, that program has blossomed into the college creating a full-time paid position to oversee the teaching animals’ enrichment, and they have since built indoor and outdoor play areas for the dogs. Dogs are walked, rather than wheeled in loud clanking metal crates, to classes and labs. I wished she could have known how much she bettered the lives of these animals.

 

The ECRF has graciously agreed to put up a plaque honoring Sam and all she did for these animals in their indoor play area. The average price for a typical memorial plaque that would include an image is $5,000-$6,000, so our fundraising goal is the middle of this range. Anything above this amount that we raise would be used to purchase enrichment for the teaching animals, or donated to Farm Sanctuary (if the ECRF does not need any additional items).

 

To know Sam was to love Sam, as she was such a caring and giving person, it was hard not to be drawn to her. She possessed a singular wit, spirited sense of humor, and boundless compassion for the beings and causes she cared about. She was beautiful, in every sense of the word. For those of us who loved her, being able to honor her legacy and let others know how much she advocated for animals would be a bittersweet but important action to take. We would love to be able to raise funds in time to have a plaque that could be unveiled at the reunion weekend, so we could remember the wonderful classmate, doctor, and friend she was to us all.

 

Thank you.