Naraa Kuzaj
aspiring veterinarian.
18. IB student. A full year in a veterinary clinic. Muay Thai champion. And founder of BecomingVet.com — the leading multilingual resource on veterinary studies in Europe.
Three countries, three systems, one line
France, Ireland, Mauritius — three school environments, three languages, and a learning pace that led her to compress three years into one without losing her average.
Primary & early secondary — France
The root of the path: French public school from Year 1 to Year 8. A francophone environment that shaped her academic French — which would prove decisive later.
Junior Certificate — Rockwell College, Ireland
Full English immersion. Three years of the Irish curriculum caught up in one year, final exam passed with Higher Merit in 7 of 9 subjects — including Math HL, English HL, Science and Geography.
3 years compressed into 1IGCSE then IB — Westcoast International, Mauritius
IGCSE 2024 sat in a single year: A in Biology/Chemistry/Physics/Maths, A* in French (1st in Mauritius), A in English. Currently in Form 6, IB Diploma in progress (Nov. 2026 finish).
Top #1 nationally — French353 clinic hours, real acts on file
The vast majority of vet-school applicants arrive with two to three weeks of shadowing. Naraa logged 353 hours across a full year (weekends + school holidays) — signed attestation with the itemised list of acts performed.
Vétérinaire Mauritius, Albion
Trainee — 353 hours across weekends and school holidays, unpaid. Concrete acts, not just observation:
- Surgery assistance: caesareans, sterilisations, amputations — surgical-kit preparation
- Medical care: vaccines and injections (SC, IM, IV), IV-line placement and management
- Temperature-taking, emergency care
- Radiographs, diagnostics of fractures, abscesses, infections
- Instrument sterilisation, hospitalisation & Pet Hotel management
- Client-facing intake and treatment explanation
- Reference: Dr Jowad Timol
La Cavale riding centre, Sévrier (France)
Equine assistant at the riding centre — weekends and school holidays.
- Grooming, feeding, basic handling
- Support during lessons — safety and comfort of horses
- Large-animal exposure — often overlooked in early vet formation
- Reference: Ms Amélie, Sévrier
Dog shelters
Shelter volunteer — daily care, socialisation, hygiene.
- Feeding, kennel cleaning, hygiene standards
- Socialisation, basic handling, exercise
- Team work under safety protocols
- Direct exposure to the hard side of animal welfare
IGCSE 2024 results — completed in one year
The IGCSE syllabus is normally covered in two years. Naraa sat it in one, with consistent grades across all sciences.
"Responsibility" award — IGCSE 2024 cohort · Top in Mauritius, French First Language
Completed certifications — University of Edinburgh (Coursera)
- ✓EDIVET: Do you have what it takes to be a veterinarian?
- ✓Animal Behaviour and Welfare
- ✓Animal Welfare in the Clinic
- ✓The Truth About Cats and Dogs
- ✓The Horse Course — Introduction to Basic Care and Management
In progress
- →Introduction to Genetics and Evolution
- →Dog Emotion and Cognition
- →Chemical Biology
Why BecomingVet.com exists
I was looking for how to become a veterinarian in Europe. The information was fragmented, sometimes wrong, never consolidated — especially outside English. I decided to build the resource I wished I had found — and to open it freely to every young person who, like me, can't afford a €3,000 private counsellor.
The site offers a comparator across all 32 schools, a grade converter between 8 systems (French Bac, IB, A-Levels, EBAU, Maturità, Abitur, GPA, PT), an application calendar (699 events, auto-refreshed monthly), a "Veterinary career" dossier in 4 languages, and an experience database fed by dedicated scrapers pulling from LPO, Ferus, Cybelle Planetarium, JeVeuxAider…
The discipline the profession demands — trained outside the clinic
A veterinarian is mental and physical endurance, rapid decisions under stress, and the ability to own a project through to the end. She has been training on those fronts for a long time.
Muay Thai — competitive level
Fights won by KO in 2024, 2025 and 2026. "Queen of the Ring" 2026. Club certificates (all A) across 2024-2026.
3× KO winnerNational-level athletics
4th nationally on 4×400 m in 2026. 1st regionally on 1500 m in 2026 (could not attend nationals).
National podiumKnotExtinct — JA Business Plan
Finalist 2025. Co-founded a student-led business making eco-friendly plush toys of endangered species. CSR: profits donated to an orphanage, beach clean-ups.
2025 finalistLifeLoop — National Innovation Challenge
3rd nationally, 2026. Designed a mobile app entered into the innovation challenge.
National podiumDuke of Edinburgh Award
Bronze earned in 2024. Gold in progress — self-funded international trip with team. Leadership, project management, resilience.
Bronze · Gold in progressScience Quest & academic competitions
Participation in Science Quest 2025. "Responsibility" award IGCSE 2024. Consistent presence at academic contests.
Continuous engagementTarget veterinary schools
A candid application strategy: the elite francophone route as first choice, European English tracks at par, then a broader net across Central Europe.
Écoles Nationales Vétérinaires (ENV)
🇫🇷 FrancePrimary route. Post-baccalaureate national concours (via Parcoursup), then a 5-6 year integrated cursus. Four schools (Alfort, Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse), ~280 post-bac seats (~6.5% admission rate). International recognition, historical formation, near-free tuition.
English tracks — Spain (scholarship-conditional)
🇪🇸 SpainPrivate universities (CEU as flagship) and public English-track programmes. Application conditional on securing a scholarship — otherwise annual fees are prohibitive.
English tracks — Italy
🇮🇹 ItalyInternational programmes taught in English. Bologna launched Italy's first EN vet programme in October 2025. Federico II (Naples) opens an English track in 2026-2027 (20 seats). Bologna registration to complete.
University of Liège (ULiège)
🇧🇪 BelgiumFrench-language vet faculty, European curriculum, entrance examination. A historic top-tier francophone alternative for French applicants.
Central Europe safety net
🇭🇺 🇵🇱 🇨🇿 🇸🇰 🇭🇷 🇷🇴 🇧🇬A set of quality schools with English-language programmes and moderate fees — the safety net to secure a vet-school seat for the 2027 intake.
Get in touch
Response within 24-48 h — whether you're an admissions panel who would like to know more, a teacher, a mentor from the veterinary world, or a future applicant to whom BecomingVet.com could be useful.