Jared Culver’s path from the Maui Humane Society to Washington State
During a clinical rotation for his veterinary degree at Washington State, a pet ferret came into Jared Culver’s exam room with bone cancer in its shoulder blade. It was the first living case of its kind ever documented. He and his team didn’t have a textbook to turn to, so they had to write the treatment plan as they went.
Three weeks after the leg was amputated, the ferret was walking again on its remaining three legs. It’s exactly the kind of problem Jared has spent his life training to solve.
“I’ve wanted to be a vet since I was 5 years old,” he says. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever really wanted to do.”
Jared’s path toward that lifelong dream took off when he joined HTA in ninth grade. Through the Career-Based Learning program, he earned high school credit while spending his afternoons volunteering at the Maui Humane Society — getting the hands-on animal care experience that set his career in motion.
In 11th grade, Jared’s advisor, Ms. Jenelle Peterson, pointed him toward HTA’s veterinary sciences elective and the class solidified his goals even more. By senior year, Ms. Peterson — now a teacher at HTA’s Lāhainā campus — was helping him apply to the veterinary technology program at Windward Community College on O‘ahu. The program is one of the most competitive in the state and only a fraction of first-year students make it to the second year.
Right after graduating high school in 2018, he moved to O‘ahu on his own, found an apartment in Kāne‘ohe, and settled into a routine with no car — walking to class every day and making his grocery runs on foot with a wagon in tow.
After graduating from WCC, he returned to Maui and spent three years working full time at Wailuku Pet Clinic while completing his veterinary school prerequisites online at night, essentially earning a second degree in biochemistry along the way. At the clinic’s one-doctor practice, Jared was the only other person cleared to handle controlled drugs.
“Every step mattered to get me to where I am,” he says. “Without my Associate’s in Veterinary Technology, I would’ve just been an assistant at Wailuku Pet Clinic — instead, my degree let me take on real responsibility there. Without that experience, I might not have gotten into my first-choice vet school.”
Asked if he’d go back and tell his younger self to do anything differently along the way, Jared doesn’t hesitate.
“No — I wouldn’t change a thing.”
This May, the 2018 HTA Kīhei alum reaches his ultimate milestone: graduating from Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. While dogs remain his favorite patients, his hands-on care spans from horses and livestock to guinea pigs and geckos. He plans to work at a practice in Washington for now, but down the line, he’s got his eyes set on a practice of his own.
