Finding Passion and Purpose in Veterinary Medicine

Passion and purpose help fuel careers in veterinary medicine but what drives individuals to continually provide animal health care isn’t always easy to identify. For Kenichiro Yagi, MS, RVT, VTS (ECC) (SAIM), chief veterinary nursing officer for Veterinary Emergency Group (VEG), discovering what his passion and purpose are all about came with career starts and pauses, and challenging life experiences. he shared his personal story by delivering the Day 1 keynote in a full ballroom at the 2025 Fetch dvm360 Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Earlier in his career, Yagi said, he was attending a veterinary conference and discussing with a friend how veterinary technicians or nurses could be better utilized. The man stopped the conversation to ask Yagi, “what are you about?” Even though the question bothered him at first, Yagi told the audience that it also made him think to find meaning in it.

Yagi proceeded to tell Fetch attendees about some of the challenges, detours, accomplishments and drive that his career has brought him. He talked about his initial intention to become a veterinarian, only to drop out of veterinary school when he realized it wasn’t what he wanted. After taking time off and occupying himself with video games, Yagi opted to pursue a different path in veterinary medicine by working as a technician at Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos, California.

It was at Adobe Animal Hospital that Yagi started building skills in orthopedic surgery, while receiving mentorship from practice leaders, who encouraged technician certification. When he was asked by a mentor is he liked his job, he realized he wanted to remain in veterinary medicine. “I really got to learn about myself [while working at Adobe Animal Hospital]. And I also grew up, from being a kid that just dropped out of vet school to be more of an adult,” Yagi said.

Initially, Yagi said he became “sidetracked” by other pursuits, including a second job as a manga (Japanese comics) translator. It would be many years before he achieved certifications.