The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Student shows she is a dog’s best friend
A love of animals drives Mary Shantery’s interest in vet school
EDITOR’S NOTE
This is one in a series spotlighting the positive impact area youths are having in their school and community.
Riverside High School student Mary Shantery stays focused on her future by staying active in the present.
In her senior year, the 17-year-old has taken advantage of the school’s Project SALES, or Service and Leadership Engagement for Students.
SALES seeks to bring students out of their regional comfort zones through school-sponsored service trips which allow them to interact with and learn from other communities.
“Last year I learned a few things, but I felt like I could get even more out of it if I went back with more of an open mind, which was something I didn’t have the year before,” Mary said about what made her return to Project SALES for a second year.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to walk into this with a new perspective, more of an open mind and try to get more out of it and not come into with expectations,’” she said. “I decided to give it another try and I’m really glad that I did.”
It was this SALES Appalachian Service Project that brought Marry to Virginia to help assist low-income residents with interior and exterior home repairs and renovations. There, she was moved to not only help the residents of Jonesville, Virginia, but the animals as well.
“I always loved animals, it’s a passion of mine,” Mary said. “I’m not involved in anything specific for it. It’s always just been because I want to do it and I believe in it. When opportunity presents itself, I take over.”
It was on her Jonesville SALES trip that such an opportunity appeared. While working in the small rural town Shantery witnessed multiple incidents of animal neglect which she refused to look away from.
Her return trip to Painesville was accompanied with a beagle mix and a coonhound after she took it upon herself to rescue both of the canines.
“They were not in good condition,” Mary said. “This particular one, which I brought home, was in a little cage on the porch living in her own feces. That’s something I just can’t ignore.”
Her concern for animals is one that has remained in the forefront as she splits her time preparing for graduation from Riverside High and working at the Big Creek Veterinary Hospital in Concord Township.
Mary also has affinity for horses. When talking of her own horse, Cookie, she beams like a proud parent.
“I show horses and compete,” she said. “I’ve been at Lake County Fair and the State Fair. I love horses.”
A fan of math and sciences, Mary has already been accepted to several universities. She is narrowing down the field while she prepares to don her senior cap and gown this year. Regardless of which campus she will ultimately call her alma mater, her endgame remains resolute.
“I want to go to vet school to become a veterinarian,” Mary said. “That’s always been the dream and now its inching closer it’s just a matter of deciding how to do it.”