Veterinary medicine is an essential industry. There are billions of animals on the planet and all of them need proper attention, care, and treatment. When people think of veterinarians, though, they typically think about local vets who tend to household pets. But what about veterinarians and technicians who work with larger, more exotic animals?
Opportunities to work with large, wild animals are hard to come by for the aspiring vet. Fortunately, there are great organizations out there that link would-be veterinarians with global programs. Take Loop Abroad, for example. It’s a student travel organization with the sole aim of providing the best hands-on study abroad programs for students pursuing a career in animal care. Since its founding in 2009, Loop Abroad has grown into a multinational effort, linking thousands of students with unique veterinary learning programs across the world.
Meet Jane Stine

Jane Stine is the co-founder and managing director of Loop Abroad.
©Loop Abroad
In some form or another, Loop Abroad co-founder Jane Stine has been involved in education. Originally from Massachusetts, Stine worked as Program Director for high school national leadership conferences around the US. From there, she earned a doctorate of law at Georgetown University, which led to a teaching career and the writing of the useful handbook The Everything Guide to Pre-Algebra.
The origin of Loop Abroad, however, came from a visit to Thailand with her husband Addam Stine in 2009. Their experience at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, inspired them to provide similar opportunities to enterprising students. “We just thought that the work they were doing was amazing and that it would be a wonderful place to bring students who want to learn about animals,” Stine shares with A-Z Animals.
Stine developed Loop Abroad’s first curriculum while earning her Master of Education from Harvard University. The first batch of high school students went to Thailand to learn about biology, different ecosystems, and animal science in general. Quickly, however, the organization realized the demand for veterinary medicine. “Within the next couple of years, we realized that there really was a demand for veterinary-specific programs,” Stine recalls. “There were students who wanted to learn about it, but at the time, there really wasn’t a lot of great options for them.”
Stine called upon a high school friend and practicing veterinarian. Together, they formulated a two-week high school curriculum for their flagship program in Thailand. This proved a success and led to Loop Abroad’s steady expansion.
Loop Abroad

Students participating in Loop Abroad get experience with exotic wildlife as well as more common animals.
©Loop Abroad
When creating Loop Abroad, Stine and her husband had the express mission of providing the best hands-on study for students and making a positive impact on animal welfare and animal and marine conversation. Just as important is the development of the Loop Abroad model. Unlike other programs that offer trips to work with animals, Loop Abroad does not offer “voluntourism.” “It’s not really about going somewhere and saving the animals,” Stine explains. “It’s about going there and learning what the people who live here, work here, and care for these animals are doing.”
Loop Abroad’s guiding questions are:
- What’s their expertise?
- What can I learn from them?
- How do they sustainably develop a way to care for those animals that has a positive impact?
This framework has allowed Loop Abroad to grow steadily. Students get an experience they can’t get anywhere else. Organizations across the world that welcome these students into the fold receive dependable, consistent financial support. “They know who is coming each year and what they can count on,” Stine says.
Take the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. The organization holds hundreds of elephants, thousands of cats and dogs, and a host of other animals like cows and water buffalo. Loop Abroad’s partnership with the park established a summer, pre-veterinary program. Students spend one week living at the park. There, they might learn how to do physical exams, help restrain animals for injections, or clean an abscess on an elephant’s foot. The interaction between students and larger, wild animals remains minimal to protect them. When students aren’t learning about elephants, they get more hands-on experience with domesticated animals and livestock. This allows aspiring veterinary students to get the best of both worlds.

Loop Abroad is not a program for those looking for cute encounters and Instagram-worthy photo opps. It’s practical, hands-on experience for those seriously considering a career in veterinary medicine.
©Loop Abroad
The safety and respect of these animals, however, come first. “This is not a program where we’re picking up baby monkeys and snuggling them or taking selfies,” Stine explains. “The care and safety of the animals we work with and the students we bring are very high priorities.”
Academic Accreditation
Loop Abroad was founded with the mission of providing serious academic study for veterinary students, and it hasn’t faltered. The locations of its programs might be exotic, but the learning that goes on is grounded in professionalism and expertise. Besides employing a number of veterinarians who are integral to developing curriculum, lessons, labs, and teaching plans, Loop Abroad offers accreditation for its spectrum of programs.
While it offers many programs, internships, and classes for middle and high school students as well as adults, most of Loop Abroad’s programs are for college undergraduates. Ranging between two and six weeks, these programs, once completed, provide students with credits for a college course through the University of Findlay in Ohio. Much like conventional college, Loop Abroad students give presentations, take exams, and receive a final grade. “If they’ve chosen to get credit, they would get a transcript from the University of Finley, just like if they took the class on campus that summer,” Stine says.

In it’s first summer, Loop Abroad hosted four students. Today, the program is global and serves thousands of students.
©Loop Abroad
The only difference is that Loop Abroad students earn college credit in exotic locales working with spectacular and rare animals. It may sound expensive, but actually, it’s quite accessible for most students. The trips for Loop Abroad programs are generally all-inclusive. “The cost of a program is about the same as the cost of a three-credit course at a private university in the United States,” Stine says.
To incentivize the various clinics, sanctuaries, rescues, rehabs, and zoos, Loop Abroad pays the organizations a fee. This allows the collaborating organizations to have a consistent amount of financial support and retain staff. As a result, Loop Abroad and its various partners create a positive feedback loop of students getting hands-on veterinary experience and organizations getting consistent support for their important work. “The organization gets these wonderful students who are eager to learn to get some funding. The teaching veterinarians who come with us generally love this time with these students who are really passionate about what they’re learning,” Stine says, adding, “It’s very rare that you find something great for everybody involved.”
A Model of Success
Loop Abroad’s founding year featured a group of four students. Now, in its 16th year, the organization features programs in 11 different countries. Each year, Loop Abroad counts over a thousand enrollments for its various programs. The success of its mission has allowed Loop Abroad to provide over $1 million dollars in funding to different conservation clinics and research partners in this past year alone.
Even when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Loop Abroad survived the uncertainty by quickly pivoting to virtual options like live-streaming courses for students from programs in Thailand, Australia, and Belize. “I think that was a time where we really saw that this is something special. By keeping funding alive and letting students have those experiences told us, ‘Okay, there’s not anything that’s going to stop it,'” Stine says.

This is not your average college class.
©Loop Abroad
How You Can Get Involved
For Stine, the future of Loop Abroad looks bright. Besides expanding course offerings and adding partnership programs in different countries, she expects to see a growing demand for health academic programs that combine human, animal, and environmental health.
For those interested in joining Loop Abroad’s programs or similar offerings but are worried about funding, Stine encourages people to look into scholarships like the U.S. Department of State-sponsored Gilman Scholarship. For U.S. Citizens, she also suggests the Pell Grant.
Either way, Stine and Loop Abroad are committed to providing rigorous but exciting study-abroad programs for veterinary medicine and animal conservation. Plus, the organization is responsive and happy to answer any questions. “We encourage everyone who is planning to work in conservation or to practice veterinary medicine to seek out some time working or learning within another culture because it just expands your perspective and your understanding of how much your own sort of norms really are your own culture,” Stine says.
Learn more at Loop Abroad’s website.
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