Destination: Graduation

On the road to graduation, NC State University students learn how to navigate without the benefit of turn-by-turn directions.  

In the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, students can explore a myriad of routes in plant and animal sciences, food science, biochemistry and more. But no matter which road they travel, CALS students have the same goal: to don the Wolfpack red cap and gown after reaching their destinations. 

On Dec. 14, CALS will welcome its newest crop of alumni as 300 undergraduate and graduate students celebrate during fall commencement.

Four of those soon-to-be graduates, Thomas Dollyhite, Vanessa Pitsenbarger, Jeff Gillette and Shaanza Haniya, say it’s an accomplishment filled with pride, excitement and a little trepidation as they reflect on their achievements and what lies ahead.

Learn about their paths to commencement. And congratulations to all graduating members of the CALS Pack!

Navigating Obstacles

In many ways, pursuing a degree in animal science at NC State was a foregone conclusion for Thomas Dollyhite. He grew up around agriculture, with tobacco farmers on both sides of his family. Then the Catawba, North Carolina, native watched as his grandfather shifted to growing beef cattle at his Mount Airy farm, and he gladly rolled up his sleeves to help out whenever he could. He quickly became fascinated by the dynamic world of raising livestock. 

But Dollyhite’s academic goals were nearly derailed in 2022 following a car accident that severely fractured his left femur. In addition to needing extensive surgery to repair his leg, Dollyhite also broke his wrist in the collision. Facing a daunting recovery, he withdrew for the fall semester of his sophomore year.

“One thing that helped motivate me was that I kept in touch with a lot of teachers,” he says. “A lot of faculty checked in on me and it helped me a lot throughout the whole process.”

Among those who offered support was Carrie Pickworth, associate professor of animal science. She suggested a few beef industry certifications Dollyhite could pursue online to stay engaged. Melissa Merrill, director of undergraduate programs for the Department of Animal Science, and faculty member Latisha Judd also provided encouragement that kept him focused on returning.

By January 2023, Dollyhite was ready to get back to campus even though he couldn’t comfortably walk more than a mile at the time. “I missed the atmosphere,” he says. “I wanted to keep learning.”

Grateful, Dollyhite was determined to make the most of it. He served as an intern with Cabarrus County Cooperative Extension in the summer of 2023 and then worked as a teaching assistant for Judd’s Animal Nutrition Lab in the fall of that year. In January 2024 Dollyhite was selected as a Food Animal Scholar, a program that provides support and mentorship for animal science and poultry science majors interested in a veterinary career with food animals. This summer he then worked as a processing intern with Wayne-Sanderson Farms at a poultry facility in Dobson, North Carolina.

With graduation in sight, Dollyhite is now focused on getting into veterinary school. He’s excited about the complexity and variety of a future career working with food animals.

And being able to have that opportunity, given the obstacles that he’s faced, means everything.

“I feel blessed that I’ve been able to do it,” he says of earning his bachelor’s degree. “I’ve met a lot of great people along the way and all these connections I’ve made have made an impact.”

Flourishing in Horticulture

It can be special to watch something take root and grow. Especially if you’ve spent time and care nurturing it to thrive. Vanessa Pitsenbarger first discovered the joy of seeing plants bloom and flourish as a little girl gardening with her grandparents. Then in high school she dug into the hobby even more when her father built her a raised bed of her own.

“For the next few years, I would constantly be in that garden,” Pitsenbarger recalls. “Then I realized that I really liked working with plants and I wondered if there’s actually something I can do as a job that would be related to that.”

Pitsenbarger landed on pursuing a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and quickly zeroed in on NC State. “I liked how big the campus was and I felt like there was going to be a lot of things to get involved in and there were a lot of things connected to horticulture.”

So, the Illinois native joined the Wolfpack and quickly found a home with the Department of Horticultural Science. The Horticulture Club initially helped Pitsenbarger make friends with a shared passion for plants. 

When she joined the HortPack competition team, she discovered she liked the challenge of solving problems and testing her skills. As a member of the team, Pitsenbarger attended the National Collegiate Landscape Competition in 2023 and 2024 where she competed in plant diagnosis and robotics.

But it was an internship last summer at the Chicago Botanic Garden that confirmed her passion for growing plants. Weekly rotations through outdoor floriculture, indoor floriculture, orchids, collection plants and the general nursery exposed Pitsenbarger to many different facets of horticulture. 

“I worked with a lot of seeds, but I also got to take cuttings and treat them with a liquid hormone to get them to root,” she says. “I also got to help transport a corpse flower for display and I got to see a Ghost Orchid, which was cool.”

Looking ahead, Pitsenbarger hopes to land a job at a botanical garden or arboretum back in Illinois. She’s also open to pursuing a career in industry at a firm like Ball Horticultural Company, a global plant breeding and research firm. 

It’s the flexibility of the field and the adaptability of her skills with plants that she likes so much. “There’s landscaping, there’s research, there’s growing. There are so many different things that you can do with a [horticultural science] degree.” 

Returning to School as a Veteran

As he completes a minor in microbiology to complement his food science degree, Jeff Gillette pursues multiple interests: research, data analytics and brewing, among others. His next step is pursuing a master’s degree in biostatistics, which could prepare him for a career in the biomedical field, a role tracking yeast counts for a large brewery, or work investigating foodborne illness in the military. 

Given Gillette’s curiosity and drive, you might be surprised that his first experience with community college didn’t pan out. After a semester, he enlisted in the Marines, where his sister was serving. Following four years at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and in Okinawa, Japan, he decided to try college again.

“I was at a point in my life where I was mature enough to handle the course load,” he says. “I felt like I was going to college because I wanted to and not because I had to.”

While he was interested in computer science, Gillette didn’t think he had the academic background. His stepmom, Sharon Ramsey, an NC State alumna and former lab manager for the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, introduced him to food science. 

“I really like cooking and I’ve always been pretty good at science, so I decided to go try that out,” Gillette says.

A new brewing science minor with Sebastian Wolfrum caught his eye because his dad was a home brewer. Food science professor Gabriel Keith Harris, a fellow Marine Corps veteran, made analytics fun. Lynette Johnson’s food microbiology class inspired him. Fernanda Santos, a food safety scientist, supported his senior design capstone project, and April Morrison, undergraduate academic advisor, provided sound counsel.

What advice would he give other students? 

“Keeping an open mind, not locking yourself into a single path, and having a wide variety of experiences so that you can get a better idea of what works for you and what you’d like to do, I think that’s definitely important.”

Exploring Poultry Science 

For Shaanza Haniya, poultry science and veterinary medicine is kind of the family business. Her maternal grandfather is a veterinarian as is her father, who is also an executive with a poultry company. So, it wasn’t really a huge leap when she decided to follow the same path. Except that she had no idea her father was a veterinarian until she was in middle school.

“I guess my parents didn’t want to influence my decision,” she laughs.

The idea stuck and by high school she began to ask her father questions about his work and tagged along with him from time to time. Coming from a traditional Indian family in Dubai, her family embraced her ambition and supported her in breaking barriers to pursue college studies abroad. Her older sister graduated from NC State in 2023 with bachelor’s degrees in economics and information technology, which made the transition for her a little easier.

“They’re very big advocates for getting a good education, no matter your gender,” Haniya says.

Lynn Worley-Davis, director of undergraduate programs for the Prestage Department of Poultry Science, immediately offered Haniya support from the moment she arrived on campus.

“She has guided me through my entire journey here at NC State,” says Haniya. “When I came here, I didn’t really know a lot of people and it was very intimidating as an international student, but Dr. Worley-Davis introduced me to everyone. The poultry department is a small, close-knit and welcoming community.”

Haniya met friends and made connections early on through the University Honors Program and the Poultry Science Club. She later did an internship at a Raleigh-area veterinary clinic, before serving as a research assistant with the poultry science department helping investigate the vertical transmission of camplyobacter in laying hens. She followed that up in the summer of 2023 as an intern with the Department of Anesthesiology at Duke University researching phosgene studies and pain receptors in different animals.

Now she’s focused on getting some practical experience after graduation while applying to veterinary school. She still plans on one day going into poultry medicine.

“Poultry science has profoundly shaped my life, and as I look ahead, I am committed to building a career that bridges poultry science and veterinary medicine,” says Haniya. “I want to honor the field that has given so much to my family by advancing it for future generations.”

This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.