I do not live in Virginia but thought I would add my voice to this discussion because it probably will affect all students in this study, before long.

I was walking my 13 year old neutered male black lab mix, some years ago, and he suddently pulled hard on the leash to when seeing a cat.. This was uncharacteristic of him, but nonetheless, he pulled hard and within seconds, started making strange sounds and was clearly unable to breathe...then bubbles/foam, mixed with blood started to issue forth from his mouth. 

I immediately drove him to the emergency vet near us and he was taken into the back area.  A while later, a young woman appeared and said she wasnt sure what was wrong but they had put him in an oxygen tank and were watching him.

I waited for three hours and was sent home still not knowing what was wrong and fearing the worst. This all happened between the hours of eleven pm and two AM.. She had told me that the other vet was coming on at three, so since I couldn't sleep anyway I called at three and spoke to the regular vet and she immediately told me exactly what it was.. he had a partially paralyzed esophagus. It turns out that the "vet" who took care of us when we initially came in, was a student who was there doing some kind of "hours" that were required. So to say that she was not capable is putting it mildly.. and because of her lack of knowledge and experience, she did a slew of unnecessary tests, which provided no valuable information for the diagnosis or treatment, and took my bill up into the thousands of dollars.   

In conclusion, it is my personal belief that student vets should never be given the right or responsibility to treat without the supervision of a senior vet and that allowing them to do so, puts our pets at risk