When Dr. Amy St. Denis got on a plane December 29 bound for Asia, she opened another chapter in a pattern that has shaped much of her life beyond the vet’s office: short-term volunteer service in communities far from home.
St. Denis, a veterinarian who regularly fills in at Mad River Veterinary Clinic, Fayston, left for a weeks-long volunteer mission in South Asia. She will return January 20 after working with an international aid organization focused on children’s welfare, basic medical care, and community support.
For St. Denis, the trip is not an outlier but a continuation of extensive service abroad. Since 2013, she has participated in short-term missions lasting from one to three weeks, offering her veterinary skills, teaching experience, and time wherever they are most needed.
“I’ve been a short-term missionary since 2013,” she said, explaining that these trips typically combine hands-on work with education and encouragement in underserved areas.
On this trip, St. Denis will be involved in distributing gifts to children, supporting a children’s home, and participating in a medical mission. Part of the work will include training people in a tribal area, focusing on practical skills and basic first aid. She said she is especially looking forward to encouraging the people she meets, particularly women.
“I’m just really looking forward to encouraging the women that I meet,” St. Denis said. “Encouraging them to know that they’re loved, and cared for.”
A part of her previous volunteer work has been through Christian Veterinary Mission, an organization that connects veterinary professionals with service opportunities around the world. Through that group, she served multiple times in Haiti between 2017 and 2019. Those trips paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, but her international work resumed in recent years.
In 2023, St. Denis traveled to South Africa, where she worked at a university alongside a long-term field missionary who lives and serves there. The team supported veterinary students and assisted local communities. She also served in Brazil, again working at a university setting, teaching veterinary students, and helping provide care to people and animals in need.
Asked what motivates her she did not hesitate.
“My primary motivation is because of what God has done for me,” she said. “Because he gave his one and only son to die for my sins on a cross. And because he loves me – he loved me first – and because I love him, out of my love for him and gratitude for what he’s done for me, I want to serve others in his name.”
St. Denis’ commitment to service is rooted in a long career in veterinary medicine and education. She has been practicing since graduating from veterinary school in 1987. Her professional path has included private practice, teaching and mentoring future veterinary professionals.
She taught for six years at what was then Vermont Technical College, instructing students in the veterinary technician program. After taking early retirement from full-time teaching, she continued to stay involved. She now tutors vet tech students and assists with surgical labs at the college, in addition to helping friends and individuals in need with their pets.
Originally from Rockport, Massachusetts, St. Denis’ education took her across the country. She studied at Purdue University in Indiana and Texas A&M University, where she completed an internship, and later completed a residency at the University of California, Davis. She eventually came to Vermont to take a teaching position.
Today, St. Denis lives in Randolph, “one mountaintop over,” as she describes it. Her home is shared with a small menagerie: a beagle mix named Emma, two cats — one 19 years old and another 4 – and, for now, her daughter’s pug, Nicks. She once kept horses as well, though her animal family has downsized over the years.
While she is abroad, the pets will remain in good hands.
“My wonderful husband, Andre,” she said, will be watching them while she’s gone.
Closer to home, St. Denis continues to maintain a connection to local veterinary care. She works one day a week at Mad River Veterinary Clinic with Dr. Karen Anderson, providing relief coverage and support as needed.
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