Talented field hockey player Charlotte de Vries plans to study veterinary science to pursue her passion for helping animals. Through her work as a dog sitter, Charlotte de Vries has gained firsthand experience learning about common dog behaviors, including in older and younger dogs.
When it comes to puppies, a consistent and frequent training routine is essential for encouraging positive behaviors and reducing the occurrence of destructive or undesirable ones. Young puppies should be taught basic commands such as wait and come to ensure their safety and create a bond.
Training sessions should last between 10-15 minutes and focus on one behavior at a time. To reduce the dog’s confusion and accelerate their learning, owners should use commands consistently and only dispense rewards if the dog has completely performed the desired action.
Negative behaviors such as demand barking or eating food from the ground should be addressed as soon as they occur. It is best to train the dog to perform a desired action instead. For example, if a dog has started chewing a shoe, the owner can command the dog to release it. If the dog obeys, the owner can offer a treat or chew toy as a replacement.
High school student Charlotte de Vries competes in soccer and field hockey in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Passionate about teaching, Charlotte de Vries instructs children on the basics of field hockey and donates a percentage of her earnings to charity.
One of the core field hockey strategies is triangle passing, which allows teammates to maintain possession of the ball as they move it upfield. The player with the ball and two other teammates form a 90-degree plane.
This opens passing opportunities in two widely different directions, which makes it difficult for any one defender to guard against passes. Once the ball has been successfully passed to another player, teammates upfield and downfield move into positions as new points in a triangle that again has the ball handler at the crux.
In triangle formations, a quick shift to defense may be necessary or the ball may move into an unexpected position. This makes the triangle variable, ever-shifting, and not always in optimal alignment.
An accomplished lacrosse player, Charlotte de Vries is also a dedicated community volunteer who has given her time to nonprofits such as T&E Care and the Chester County Food Bank. Moreover, Charlotte de Vries has participated in multiple fundraising events in support of Operation Smile.
In addition to conducting hundreds of medical missions worldwide to provide life-changing surgery to individuals with cleft lip or cleft palate, Operation Smile operates research programs to better understand the cause of cleft and provide better care to its patients. One recent breakthrough that could effect newborns with cleft involves a discovery laid out in The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery in October 2018. Dr. Alejandro Garcia Botero of Hospital De San Jose in Colombia and his colleagues diagnosed cleft lip and palate on a fetus via ultrasound and, months after its birth, performed a procedure utilizing stem cells to correct it.
Following the delivery of the baby girl, a sample of her umbilical cord blood was obtained to isolate stem cells, which were subsequently processed and frozen for later use. After a few months of undergoing a nasoalveolar shaping procedure to align soft tissues in her upper jaw, the baby underwent “boneless” bone grafting surgery in which the collected stem cells were put in a small pocket of soft tissue to bridge the gap in her upper jaw. A follow-up confirmed the growth of new bone, and imaging scans performed when the girl was five years old showed significant improvement in bone thickness where the cleft had been.
A Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, high school student, Charlotte de Vries has a passion for giving back to her community through activities such as clothing drives and working for food pantries. A field hockey coach, Charlotte de Vries donates a significant amount of money earned by giving lessons to nonprofit organizations such as Operation Smile.
Operation Smile assists children with cleft palates or cleft lips in overcoming these treatable conditions. Ongoing medical efforts include a recent local mission in Dnoun Lahder, Morocco, part of an effort encompassing three dozen cities across the country over the past two decades.
With a year-round care center based in Casablanca, Operation Smile’s Moroccan volunteer network includes 250 physicians and non-medical staff members. No-cost reconstructive surgery has been provided to 7,500 patients across the country, along with dental care focused on those with facial deformities.
The organization offers similar programs in countries from Ghana to the Dominican Public.
