According to Boks' press release about the New Chief Vet, Jeremy Prupas:
"For the past 2 years, Dr. Prupas served as Program Director for Anthem College School of Veterinary Technology in Phoenix, AZ, where he took over a troubled program and successfully guided it through AVMA accreditation."
www.laanimalservices.com/PDF/pressrelease/2008/Press%20Release%20-%20New%20Chief%20Vet.pdf
However, doing a google on Anthem College School of Veterinary Technology produces almost nothing. There are a total of seven non-repeating references and these all point to Anthem's website, which says nothing about a veterinary program, classes, instructors, etc. It appears to be non-existent school except as a website.
www.anthem.edu
So who or what did Prupas guide through an accreditation process?
Doing an advanced google search on Anthem's own website finds no mention of veterinary or veterinarian. Anthem appears to be part of a conglomeration of vocational schools, apparently under one parent organization, that appear to be start-up online colleges. No facilities are mentioned, no classes.
One Internet reference provides the following review:
Anthem College Online offers online Associate's and Bachelor's Degrees in: Business and Management; Criminal Justice; Technology; Healthcare
Anthem's online platform is an engaging interactive, multimedia learning environment that incorporates text, video, sound, imagery and instructional narration. It is designed to accommodate the personal learning styles of every student in order to enhance participation, understanding and retention.
Programs are structured to allow working adults to incorporate online learning into their busy schedules. Students can log on at any hour, stop a session and pick up where they left off.
Each student at Anthem College Online is assigned a team of advisers committed to their personal academic and career success.
http://www.earnmydegree.com/online-education/online-college/anthem-college.html
This sounds surprisingly like Pierce College's barely existent vet program that offers AA programs for pre-vets, but lacking Pierce's actual physical presence and campus, and instructors that actually teach a class here and their.
The organization that "accredited" Anthem is a relatively unknown group, AVMA, not like the Western Regional that did UCLA and all other schools regarded as accredited. In fact, AVMA (www.avma.org) seems to focus on vet tech programs, not veterinarians.
If the Anthem program exists at all, it has a "Provisional Accreditation," defind by AVMA as:
Provisional Accreditation – Provisional accreditation is granted to new programs in veterinary technology where students have not completed the entire curriculum and/or the programs have not produced sufficient numbers of graduates to adequately assess outcomes. Programs may remain on provisional accreditation for a period not to exceed five years.
That is, there are no graduating students from that program.
Apparently Prupas left San Diego under a cloud, at least according to his own private practice website still up on the Internet:
http://www.allcarecathospital.net/index.html
Also, according to the Cal State vet board he is not licensed to practice in CA. Maybe let his license here lapse and can gett it reinstated immediately.
My Comment: Many prominent professionals in their own fields have almost no Internet presence. Laking an Internet identity only means you don't have much of a paper trail, and is no reflection on competence or compassion.
I just wonder why Boks chose Prupas over the other 5-6 vets already here.
I am hoping Prupas is a good-guy and highly competent feline-oriented veterinary who can bring more cats out alive from isolation. If he does, I will be his greatest supporter.
And I hope his wife--if they are still together--can get a good job with some vet local practice.
Hopefully it will not be one with whom LAAS contracts, which would be Palin-like cronyism.
Jeremy: Please be good. We need a good cat vet, smart and with compassion..
13 comments:
Can you say "diploma mill?" Scam school. Their phone number doesn't answer. It's also the same phone number as many other diploma mill schools. This new vet sounds as fraudulent as Boks. They both have made up pasts. Boks made the first nokill shelter in the US and this guy got AVMA accreditation for a diploma mill. Full of it.
It is amazing how uninformed you can be! Do just a LITTLE research and you would find that
1)Dr. Prupas is licensed to practice in CA (CA Vet Med Board website)
2)AVMA is the pre-eminent organization that regulates veterinary schools and vet tech schools. It most certainly does not accreditate diploma mills.(AVMA.org)
3)Anthem College on-line is not the same as Anthem College. The vet tech program is part of Anthem College, NOT Anthem On-line (phone call)
Once again you have thrown a bunch of s**t against the wall and are seeing if anything sticks...
You do a google on:
Anthem College School of Veterinary Technology
Please send me what you find about any such vet program.
The CA Vet board says he has an out of state registration.
AVMA is podunk. Take a look at its list of officers.
Boks also said Prupas was in Phoenix 2 years, but Prupas didn't move to Phoenix until October of 2007. That is less than one year.
Show me the website to the elite vet school you talk about.
If ytou notice smart ass, I did not say it accreditated diploma mills, that was left as a comment by soneone else.
Show me what you have expert.
This is from the CA vet Board, updated Saturday:
PRUPAS JEREMY VMD VET 13189 CLEAR 17030 N. 49TH STREET #1118 SCOTTSDALE 852545806 OUT OF STATE
AVMA regulates nothing. It is not a regulating body, it is an acreditating body.
Like I said, outside of a good looking website, what substance is there?
Besides, I sent an email to Boks before I posted this post.
He did not respond. Why did he not respond?
If you look very carefully, with the name of the school in quotes, there is ONLY ONE reference on google, and that is to an agreement between Maricopa County and the school. This is dated March 29:
43. MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT FOR PROVIDING HAND-ON ANIMAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES – APPROVED
Approve Memorandum of Agreement between Anthem College School of Veterinary Technology and Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, for the purpose of providing hand-on animal educational opportunities and related facilities needed for training while under the supervision of school faculty.
This is the ONLY mention of the school with that exact name on the Internet.
And, if you look at AVMA, Anthem got only a provisional accreditation, meaning they have no history.
Find me that vet program, with faculty, classes, tuition amounts, enrollment, and what degress are offered.
I couldn't find any and neither can others that I had look.
Remember, if I don't get the total scoop from Boks, or you know it all types who think one iota of knowledge places you beyond ordinary mankind, then I can conjecture only on hearsay info and google.
Do you really think I want to harm Prupas? If he is good, great. But prove to me that all that Boks said was not pure crap.
Remember Boks said Prupas had spent the last 2 years guiding the school through accreditation, but the letter of goodbye Jeremy wrote was dated Sept. 28, 2007.
Anthem still is not accreditated, it has a provisional accreditation, which means no substantial history.
Besides, Prupas' school is mentioned on a Maricopa County site as having a Mem of Understanding. So who at Maricopa turned Boks onto Jeremy?
This could be a case of cronyism where Ed's old friends at Maricopa recommend Prupas, or else Ed has known him for years.
You see, I have the blog, and so far as I understand, you offer nothing in terms of information.
Last, look at the AVMA listing for Anthem.
Anthem College
1515 E. Indian School Road
Phoenix, AZ 85014
602-279-9700
www.anthem.edu
(Jeremy Prupas, DVM - Director)
Associate in Science
Initial Accreditation-March 3, 2008
PROVISIONAL ACCREDITATION
If you look at the Anthem site, where is vet school mentioned?
And, it is for an associate degree program, just like Pierce.
"The CA Vet board says he has an out of state registration."
So what?, it also states that his license is clear and expires 03/09. The out of state just means he has been living out of state.
"AVMA regulates nothing. It is not a regulating body, it is an acreditating body."
Without AVMA accreditation, a degree from a vet school or vet tech school is not recognized (except in CA).
"And, if you look at AVMA, Anthem got only a provisional accreditation, meaning they have no history."
Provisional accreditation just means the school is fairly young. To get full accreditation, the school has to show the AVMA that it's students do well on the national boards. Provisional accreditation comes with the same rights and privileges as full accreditation.
"And, it is for an associate degree program, just like Pierce."
Almost every vet tech programs in North America is an associates degree.
As for Anthem College, why don't you try calling them (I easily found their phone number 602-279-9700) Oh wait, that's right, you just get all of your info off the internet which is never wrong.
I called that number. There is no program. There are no instructors. Prupas is listed as the instructor. Not even one stuent is taking a class.
They will begin to enrol students in about 2 months.
If you look elsewhere on the Internet, you can see they are looking for instructor.
No program; no classes; no instructors.
They will mail me general information. No tuition or classes will be listed in the generic material sent to me, or so I was instructed.
Yes, provisional means it is faily you, like it will begin to exist in 2 months if they can find an instructor.
Before you teach me, do your own research. Why didn't you call the number yourself?
A good vet chief has to be a capable vet properly educated and the one who brings a positive change with his/her presence.
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