Food Animal Scholars Find Their Way
By Amy Burtch
Undergraduate students desiring a veterinary career in food animal agriculture can access a signature program at NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).
For almost 20 years, CALS Food Animal Scholars (FAS) program has worked in conjunction with NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to fill an ongoing need for food animal veterinarians.
The program’s goal is to create pools of Food Animal Scholars composed of excellent undergraduate students with a sincere interest in animal agriculture and offer them the flexibility to explore their career options in food animal care through academic work, hands-on experiences and mentorship as they prepare to enter veterinary school.
Poultry science and animal science majors can apply to the program. Once accepted, students are assigned faculty mentors in CALS and must complete a summer internship. Students in the pool who meet all requirements and standards will be admitted to the CVM and be assigned a faculty mentor in CVM to aid in their transition from CALS to CVM.
Four FAS members — from an undergraduate CALS senior to a fourth year DVM student — shared their FAS experiences.
Love of Animals Starts Young
Bailey Jones developed her love of animals as a child on her grandparent’s North Carolina farm, a cow-calf operation that raised a small crop of Black Angus calves. That love further developed with her participation in Future Farmers of America (FFA) in high school.
But it was her internship with a large animal veterinarian that led her to FAS. Brent and Becky Scarlett of Scarlett Mobile Large Animal Services introduced Jones to the program. She still works with the practice today.
Just inducted in January 2024, Jones, a senior majoring in animal science, already touts the future benefits she sees from her involvement: “My faculty mentor will play a heavy role in clinical opportunities. They are well-connected in the food animal industry.
“I also look forward to the comradery in my FAS pool as well as amongst other pools,” she says. “Fellow peers will also serve as good mentors as they have similar interests and can relate to your challenges.”
Jones participated in a FAS internship this summer with Jorgensen Land & Cattle in Ideal, South Dakota, the largest U.S. seed stock operation for Black Angus cattle.
“It was a cool operation because it was so diverse, covering everything within the cattle industry,” says Jones. “Plus, it was my first experience working on a feedlot setting.”
She ultimately sees herself as a food animal-focused private practitioner, skilled with the clinical experience driven by her time in the FAS program.
A Surprising Love of Swine
Bella Black earned her bachelor’s degree in animal science from CALS in May 2024, and her first year as a CVM student is well underway. Black credits William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor Billy Flowers and his Introduction to Animal Science (ANS 150) course with piquing and sustaining her interest in the field. Flowers also introduced her to FAS.
“There’s so much more to think about with a production animal — you do things keeping in mind both animal welfare and producing a good product for consumption,” says Black, who worked at NC State’s Swine Educational Unit during her undergraduate studies.
As part of her FAS journey, Black participated in several “mini externships.” She helped immunize bison on a Mount Airy farm, and she gained hands-on farming experience at a Mt. Pleasant gilt multiplier where she also processed beef cows. Black then worked on a Vermont sheep farm, her first time servicing small ruminants, and shadowed a mixed practitioner.
When reflecting on FAS benefits, Black labels Flowers and CVM Professor Glen Almond as helpful mentors.
“Dr. Almond helped establish my summer internship on Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV2), a project studying the best timing to administer piglet vaccinations.” She will present this research at the Annual American Association of Swine Veterinarians meeting in March 2025.
She also sees benefit in the FAS community: “All members of the FAS community are friendly with one another, and I appreciate the program for this bond.”
Having grown up in High Point, North Carolina, nowhere near a farm, Black’s focus on swine keeps her family scratching their heads, but she sees her future as a mixed practitioner in rural Nebraska.
“I would love to one day be able to host Food Animal Scholars and help them as much as this program has helped me,” she says.
A Leg Up on Her Career
Another first-year veterinary student, Kylie Karabinos, always knew she wanted a career in veterinary medicine with large animals. She’s making that goal a reality as she pursues mixed animal medicine at CVM.
Karabinos, who earned her undergraduate degree in animal science, applied to the FAS program because it aligned with her goals and would support her future career.
“I highly recommend this program as it provides invaluable experience and mentorship,” says Karabinos. “You work with mentors who oversee your progress and engage with a community of veterinary professionals and colleagues who want to see you succeed.”
Her internship experiences have also been a major FAS benefit. Like Black, she participated in multiple internships — one working on a bison farm, where she learned about agritourism, herd vaccinations, deworming protocols and husbandry. She also worked on a Vermont sheep farm and at Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge, a vegan farm animal sanctuary, tending a range of animals, from long-horned cattle and small ruminants to chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks and guinea fowl.
“This program has encouraged me to seek out experiences in many different food animal medicine avenues, which even led me to work on a dairy goat farm in Italy this summer,” says Karabinos. “FAS mentors have also been helpful in advising me on food animal medicine internships, which benefit me as a growing professional.”
With hopes of one day being a mixed animal veterinarian, Karabinos credits the program with helping her be an adaptable and empathetic professional who will soon serve her community.
From Animal Science Club to FAS
Nick Collier is going through his clinicals now and plans to graduate from CVM in April 2025, with a focus on working with cattle in the future.
For almost 20 years, Collier lived amongst cow pastures, and his family started a small commercial cow-calf operation in 2010. He not only worked with beef cattle on the farm but also participated in FFA and his high school’s strong agricultural program, which helped develop his food animal interests.
Inspired by CALS seniors in the Animal Science Club, Collier decided to pursue food animal agriculture and medicine as a career and was accepted in the FAS program in 2019.
His 2019 summer internship occurred at JWM Dairy, a North Carolina commercial 300-head Holstein dairy, at which he learned new skills, like husbandry and dairy management.
As for benefits from his FAS involvement, the CVM student points to the essential networking and relationship building the program offers.
“The biggest benefit is developing contacts,” says Collier. “This is critical in food animal agriculture because when you go to a farm as a vet, the farmer places his or her livelihood in your hands.”
Following graduation, he wants to stay in North Carolina and do as much food animal care as possible, with the ultimate goal of being in private practice, as a mobile farm veterinarian.
This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.