Applications are now open for about about 250 scholarships of $2,500 each to help second and third-year veterinary medicine students pay for their education.

Pfizer Animal Health and the American Veterinary Medical Foundation are partners in the effort to support veterinarians through training and education, research and development, and investing in the future of the veterinary profession.

For 2011, the second year of the program, Pfizer Animal Health will provide up to $625,000 in student scholarships to eligible second- and third-year veterinary medicine college students studying at the U.S. and Caribbean-based AVMA-accredited colleges of veterinary medicine.  In addition to traditional selection criteria - academic excellence and financial need - the scholarships will focus on meeting ongoing needs of the veterinary profession: diversity, sustainability, and the availability of veterinarians to serve in mixed or rural practices. Scholarships will be awarded to students in all areas, including food animal medicine, small animal clinical medicine, research, government services, and organized medicine.

In 2010 - the program's launch year - Pfizer Animal Health awarded 222 U.S. veterinary students with a total of $555,000 in scholarships.  The scholarship complements a number of other Pfizer Animal Health programs supporting the veterinary profession, including more than $15 million invested last year in universities, industry education and training, scholarships, and allied organizations.

To apply for the Pfizer Animal Health Veterinary Student Scholarship Program, students can visit www.vetstudentconnect.com or www.avmf.org/pfizer  until November 15, 2010.