I have wanted my future career to be a veterinarian ever since I knew what a veterinarian was. When I was young, I viewed this career as a way to work with animals every day. But as I have gotten older, I have grown to understand that I'm not only drawn to this career because I would be able to see animals every day, but because I would be able to help animals every day. Currently, the United States has a shortage of veterinarians in every aspect of the field. However, there is an even smaller number of household exotic vets. Throughout my childhood, I grew up with a variety of animals, which included dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, quail and horses. My love for birds and small mammals quickly grew and led to me ultimately wanting to pursue a career in helping them. I'm excited to pursue my higher education towards vet school where I will be able to learn all the skills that I will need to hopefully be able to eventually open my own veterinary clinic that specializes in the veterinary needs of household exotics. I have lots of leadership experience that I use everyday in my local and campus community. I was selected as one of 9 youth from Wisconsin last year to attend the National 4-H Conference in Washington DC. This week long trip provided me the opportunity to present on a question that the USDA provided me which they wanted youth feedback on, and it also allowed me to speak directly with the Secretary of Agriculture about things related to my field of studies. At my college level I am a senator on student government where I am able to help make changes on campus which help better the college experience for all students. This upcoming year I will be creating a campus Animal Rescue Club where we will run donation drives and volunteer at local shelters. I am not only a good leader but I am also dedicated to my classes. I ended my freshman year of undergrad with a 4.0 and look forward to continuing my 4.0 for years to come. Outside of school and clubs I work as a customer service assistant at Walgreens and shadow at a local veterinary clinic to gain experience before heading to veterinary school. I feel that I would be a good candidate for this scholarship because I am extremely hard working and dedicated to my future career. I will never give up on making a difference in the lives of people and animals around me. This money would help me feel a bit more financially secure before heading into vet school in a few years, which will surely deplete all of my savings thus far. Thank you for providing this opportunity to help fund a student's education.

I have wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as I can remember. I am very passionate about helping animals which led me to become interested in this career path. In particular I have decided to become either a household exotics vet or work for the USDA as a veterinarian. I am currently in my first year at UW-River Falls where I am majoring in Animal Science- Meat Animal and Animal Science- Companion Animal along with being in the Pre-Vet program. I have had lots of experience with animals of all kinds throughout my life, including, but not limited to; dogs, cats, horses, goats, rabbits and poultry. I believe what ultimately made me decide to pursue this career was my experiences through 4-H. I have been a part of 4-H since I was eight years old. 4-H gave me many opportunities to work with all sorts of animals, especially with the species that my family did not own. Additionally 4-H made me a great leader. I was my club's Secretary for two years then became my club's president for another two years. I also had the opportunity to be selected for the National 4-H Conference in DC where I had the chance to meet the secretary of agriculture and do a presentation to the USDA, this is what made me decide I might want to work for the USDA as a veterinarian. Through my county 4-H program I have had many opportunities which helped me become stronger in my animal knowledge and share my knowledge with others. These opportunities included many shadowing hours with large and small animal vets, going to the University of Wisconsin Madison and being able to dissect animal eyes with their vet program, teaching the dog project showmanship class, and being able to teach my county's poultry program. My connections I made through shadowing allowed me to branch out and shadow other vets frequently this past summer and my first semester. Outside of 4-H I am involved in my school's marching band and held the leadership position of drum Major my junior and senior years, then joined my university's marching band for this first semester and have already been offered to be drum Major for the band next year. To help build my resume for vet school I joined student government as an At-Large Senator, became a collegiate athlete on the IHSA Hunt Seat Team and have joined many animal related clubs. This first semester I finished with a 4.0 GPA and took 16 credits. In my spare time I enjoy volunteering at my local humane society and food pantry. I am a very well rounded person, who is very focused on academics, but also very involved in the community. I feel that my past experiences, and experiences still to come will help me become an amazing veterinarian that will be able to make a difference in my community and possibly the nation. This scholarship would help me pay for my upcoming schooling that I need in order to graduate with a major in Animal Science and ultimately get into vet school. Thank you for taking the time to read over my application!

Being very caring and passionate towards helping others has been important to me as long as I can remember. My parents have done most of the work by raising me to be a compassionate individual, however being a member of 4-H is what truly pushed me to make a difference in peoples lives. I have been a member of 4-H since I was eight years old. 4-H taught me the importance of community service and volunteering while allowing me to take part in these activities. Throughout my 10 years of 4-H so far I have had the opportunity to volunteer at chili dinners, food pantries, cleaning up the town hall, weeding flower beds at a zoo, handing out Easter cards to assisted living homes, buying a Thanksgiving dinner for a needy family, and many others. These experiences through 4-H really pushed me to volunteer and help others in my own time. On my own I have volunteered at numerous low income spay/neuter clinics, feral cat spay/neuter clinics, the humane society, church fish fry's, and food pantries. During high school I also put in over 100 volunteer hours with my band teacher to help organize music, organize uniforms and help teach her classes while she was on vacation or sick. Through all of these volunteer experiences I have not only been helping my community around me but I have also been striving to help those community members become better versions of themselves. I have been doing this by being very passionate towards those who are struggling, being the person that someone can always come and talk too, and helping fellow students study for tests and quizzes. I had the opportunity this past spring (April 2024) to use my compassion towards a bigger purpose. I was given the chance to do a presentation to the USDA at their headquarters in Washington DC on the topic of creating an inclusive and welcoming community within our entire nation, with a portion of it focusing on stigma and bias within our school systems effecting the way students act towards others. While putting this presentation together I created an acronym called ECHO which could be used to help students and adults work through some of these differences to help them accept someone more easily. I would go over the idea, however that would put me over my word limit. At the end of my presentation one of the USDA staff came up to me and asked me if they could use this acronym in a committee they were working on with the president. This was very exciting because it meant that I could potentially help people across the country have a new perspective on what a welcoming community means. Throughout the start of my first semester of college I had found myself itching to help again. So I decided to run for a senator role in student government where I believed I could make a difference for all students on campus. I feel that being a part of student government so far has allowed me to help change certain rules on campus that not only help the way that campus is run but also helps the safety of all students. Additionally I have been volunteering at athletic events and other school events to help support my fellow students on campus. I am excited to continue supporting my community both at school and at home for years to come and I believe I can truly make a difference in my community.

I have wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as I can remember. I am very passionate about helping animals which led me to become interested in this career path. In particular I have decided to become either a household exotics vet or work for the USDA as a veterinarian. I am currently in my first year at UW-River Falls where I am majoring in Animal Science- Meat Animal and Animal Science- Companion Animal along with being in the Pre-Vet program. I have had lots of experience with animals of all kinds throughout my life, including, but not limited to; dogs, cats, horses, goats, rabbits and poultry. I believe what ultimately made me decide to pursue this career was my experiences through 4-H. I have been a part of 4-H since I was seven years old. 4-H gave me many opportunities to work with all sorts of animals, especially with the species that my family did not own. Additionally 4-H made me a great leader. I was my club's Secretary for two years then became my club's president for another two years. I also had the opportunity to be selected for the National 4-H Conference in DC where I had the chance to meet the secretary of agriculture and do a presentation to the USDA, this is what made me decide I might want to work for the USDA as a veterinarian. Through my county 4-H program I have had many opportunities which helped me become stronger in my animal knowledge and share my knowledge with others. These opportunities included many shadowing hours with large and small animal vets, going to the University of Wisconsin Madison and being able to dissect animal eyes with their vet program, teaching the dog project showmanship class, and being able to teach my county's poultry program. My connections I made through shadowing allowed me to branch out and shadow other vets frequently this past summer and my first semester. Outside of 4-H I am involved in my school's marching band and held the leadership position of drum Major my junior and senior years, then joined my university's marching band for this first semester and have already been offered to be drum Major for the band next year. To help build my resume for vet school I joined student government as an At-Large Senator, became a collegiate athlete on the IHSA Hunt Seat Team and have joined many animal related clubs. This first semester I finished with a 4.0 GPA and took 16 credits. In my spare time I enjoy volunteering at my local humane society and food pantry. I am a very well rounded person, who is very focused on academics, but also very involved in the community. I feel that my past experiences, and experiences still to come will help me become an amazing veterinarian that will be able to make a difference in my community and possibly the nation.

Being very caring and passionate towards helping others has been important to me as long as I can remember. My parents have done most of the work by raising me to be a compassionate individual, however being a member of 4-H is what truly pushed me to make a difference in peoples lives. I have been a member of 4-H since I was eight years old. 4-H taught me the importance of community service and volunteering while allowing me to take part in these activities. Throughout my 10 years of 4-H so far I have had the opportunity to volunteer at chili dinners, food pantries, cleaning up the town hall, weeding flower beds at a zoo, handing out Easter cards to assisted living homes, buying a Thanksgiving dinner for a needy family, and many others. These experiences through 4-H really pushed me to volunteer and help others in my own time. On my own I have volunteered at numerous low income spay/neuter clinics, feral cat spay/neuter clinics, the humane society, church fish fry's, and food pantries. During high school I also put in over 100 volunteer hours with my band teacher to help organize music, organize uniforms and help teach her classes while she was on vacation or sick. Through all of these volunteer experiences I have not only been helping my community around me but I have also been striving to help those community members become better versions of themselves. I have been doing this by being very passionate towards those who are struggling, being the person that someone can always come and talk too, and helping fellow students study for tests and quizzes. I had the opportunity this past spring (April 2024) to use my compassion towards a bigger purpose. I was given the chance to do a presentation to the USDA at their headquarters in Washington DC on the topic of creating an inclusive and welcoming community within our entire nation, with a portion of it focusing on stigma and bias within our school systems effecting the way students act towards others. While putting this presentation together I created an acronym called ECHO which could be used to help students and adults work through some of these differences to help them accept someone more easily. I would go over the idea, however that would put me over my word limit. At the end of my presentation one of the USDA staff came up to me and asked me if they could use this acronym in a committee they were working on with the president. This was very exciting because it meant that I could potentially help people across the country have a new perspective on what a welcoming community means. Throughout the start of my first semester of college I had found myself itching to help again. So I decided to run for a senator role in student government where I believed I could make a difference for all students on campus. I feel that being a part of student government so far has allowed me to help change certain rules on campus that not only help the way that campus is run but also helps the safety of all students. Additionally I have been volunteering at athletic events and other school events to help support my fellow students on campus. I am excited to continue supporting my community both at school and at home for years to come and I believe I can truly make a difference in my community.

I have wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as I can remember. I am very passionate about helping animals which led me to become interested in this career path. In particular I have decided to become either a household exotics vet or work for the USDA as a veterinarian. I am currently in my first year at UW-River Falls where I am majoring in Animal Science- Meat Animal and Animal Science- Companion Animal along with being in the Pre-Vet program. I have had lots of experience with animals of all kinds throughout my life, including, but not limited to; dogs, cats, horses, goats, rabbits and poultry. I believe what ultimately made me decide to pursue this career was my experiences through 4-H. I have been a part of 4-H since I was seven years old. 4-H gave me many opportunities to work with all sorts of animals, especially with the species that my family did not own. Additionally 4-H made me a great leader. I was my club's Secretary for two years then became my club's president for another two years. I also had the opportunity to be selected for the National 4-H Conference in DC where I had the chance to meet the secretary of agriculture and do a presentation to the USDA, this is what made me decide I might want to work for the USDA as a veterinarian. Through my county 4-H program I have had many opportunities which helped me become stronger in my animal knowledge and share my knowledge with others. These opportunities included many shadowing hours with large and small animal vets, going to the University of Wisconsin Madison and being able to dissect animal eyes with their vet program, teaching the dog project showmanship class, and being able to teach my county's poultry program. My connections I made through shadowing allowed me to branch out and shadow other vets frequently this past summer and my first semester. Outside of 4-H I am involved in my school's marching band and held the leadership position of drum Major my junior and senior years, then joined my university's marching band for this first semester and have already been offered to be drum Major for the band next year. To help build my resume for vet school I joined student government as an At-Large Senator, became a collegiate athlete on the IHSA Hunt Seat Team and have joined many animal related clubs. This first semester I finished with a 4.0 GPA and took 16 credits. In my spare time I enjoy volunteering at my local humane society and food pantry. I am a very well rounded person, who is very focused on academics, but also very involved in the community. I feel that my past experiences, and experiences still to come will help me become an amazing veterinarian that will be able to make a difference in my community and possibly the nation.

I have wanted my future career to be a veterinarian ever since I knew what a veterinarian was. When I was young I viewed this career as a way to work with animals everyday. But as I have gotten older I have grown to understand that I'm not only drawn to this career because I would be able to see animals everyday, but because I would be able to help animals everyday. Currently the United States has a shortage of veterinarians in every aspect of the field. However there is an even smaller amount of vets willing to work in the food industry, specifically by working for the USDA to keep the animals that we rely on for a food source healthy and productive. The food animal field does not only include cows and pigs but it also includes sheep, poultry and goats. These animals to many farmers are a way of life. So why did I decide to pursue this career path? Well I chose this route for a few different reasons. There are plenty of people going to vet school to work with dogs and cats, but very few who are willing to work with other types of animals. So I decided to go the route of either working with exotics or large animals. However what made me choose the route of large animals (meat animals) was when I had the opportunity to travel to the USDA headquarters in Washington DC this past spring (April 2024). I had the opportunity to do a presentation to USDA staff and personally speak with the Secretary of Agriculture while I was there. Some of the things that we talked about were about the food industry. Our conversations made me realize that I could truly make a difference for people across the country if I went into the meat animal industry as a veterinarian. Throughout high school and this first semester of college I have been involved in a lot of leadership groups. In high school I was a part of 4-H which is where I learned how to be a leader and ultimately learned that I wanted to make a difference in my community. This first semester I was a senator in student government where I was able to make a difference right on campus. Additionally I am a collegiate athlete, a part of numerous clubs, working part time, and received a 4.0 GPA this first semester. I am determined to make this career path happen so I can make a difference in not only my direct community but in the entire country. I'm looking forward to seeing where my future takes me!

Being very caring and passionate towards helping others has been important to me as long as I can remember. My parents have done most of the work by raising me to be a compassionate individual, however being a member of 4-H is what truly pushed me to make a difference in peoples lives. I have been a member of 4-H since I was eight years old. 4-H taught me the importance of community service and volunteering while allowing me to take part in these activities. Throughout my 10 years of 4-H so far I have had the opportunity to volunteer at chili dinners, food pantries, cleaning up the town hall, weeding flower beds at a zoo, handing out Easter cards to assisted living homes, buying a Thanksgiving dinner for a needy family, and many others. These experiences through 4-H really pushed me to volunteer and help others in my own time. On my own I have volunteered at numerous low income spay/neuter clinics, feral cat spay/neuter clinics, the humane society, church fish fry's, and food pantries. During high school I also put in over 100 volunteer hours with my band teacher to help organize music, organize uniforms and help teach her classes while she was on vacation or sick. Through all of these volunteer experiences I have not only been helping my community around me but I have also been striving to help those community members become better versions of themselves. I have been doing this by being very passionate towards those who are struggling, being the person that someone can always come and talk too, and helping fellow students study for tests and quizzes. I had the opportunity this past spring (April 2024) to use my compassion towards a bigger purpose. I was given the chance to do a presentation to the USDA at their headquarters in Washington DC on the topic of creating an inclusive and welcoming community within our entire nation, with a portion of it focusing on stigma and bias within our school systems effecting the way students act towards others. While putting this presentation together I created an acronym called ECHO which could be used to help students and adults work through some of these differences to help them accept someone more easily. I would go over the idea, however that would put me over my word limit. At the end of my presentation one of the USDA staff came up to me and asked me if they could use this acronym in a committee they were working on with the president. This was very exciting because it meant that I could potentially help people across the country have a new perspective on what a welcoming community means. Throughout the start of my first semester of college I had found myself itching to help again. So I decided to run for a senator role in student government where I believed I could make a difference for all students on campus. I feel that being a part of student government so far has allowed me to help change certain rules on campus that not only help the way that campus is run but also helps the safety of all students. Additionally I have been volunteering at athletic events and other school events to help support my fellow students on campus. I am excited to continue supporting my community both at school and at home for years to come and I believe I can truly make a difference in my community.

I have wanted to be a veterinarian for as long as I can remember. I am very passionate about helping animals which led me to become interested in this career path. In particular I have decided to become a large animal vet. I am currently in my first year at UW-River Falls where I am majoring in Animal Science- Meat Animal (they do not offer a general large animal major) and in the Pre-Vet program. I have had lots of experience with animals of all kinds throughout my life, including, but not limited to; dogs, cats, horses, goats, rabbits and poultry. I believe what ultimately made me decide to pursue this career was my experiences through 4-H. I have been a part of 4-H since I was seven years old. 4-H gave me many opportunities to work with all sorts of animals, especially with the species that my family did not own. Additionally 4-H made me a great leader. I was my club's Secretary for two years then became my club's president for another two years. I also had the opportunity to be selected for the National 4-H Conference in DC where I had the chance to meet the secretary of agriculture and do a presentation to the USDA. Through my county 4-H program I have had many opportunities which helped me become stronger in my animal knowledge and share my knowledge with others. These opportunities included many shadowing hours with large and small animal vets, going to the University of Wisconsin Madison and being able to dissect animal eyes with their vet program, and being able to teach my counties poultry program. My connections I made through shadowing allowed me to branch out and shadow other vets frequently this past summer and first semester. Outside of 4-H I am involved in my school's marching band and held the leadership position of drum Major my junior and senior years, then joined my university's marching band for this first semester and have already been offered to be drum Major for the band next year. I am also very involved in the sport of water skiing. For the last 5 years I have been a part of a competitive water skiing team where I have been able to advance in my skills and compete at the state level. Through my team I have won many awards which include being awarded the most dedicated skier these last two years and also voted on as the most improved skier in 2022. I additionally run my team's social media platforms and enjoy teaching youth how to water ski. In my spare time I enjoy volunteering at my local humane society and food pantry. I feel that I am a very well rounded person, who is very focused on academics, but also very involved in the community. I feel that my past experiences, and experiences still to come will help me become an amazing veterinarian that will be able to make a difference in my community and possibly the nation.

I have wanted to be a veterinarian ever since I knew what a veterinarian was. I have always been obsessed with animals of all species. Because of my love for animals my parents decided to have me join 4-H in 4th grade. We however lived in the city and I was only able to show my dog and a rabbit that my parents let me get. In 6th grade we moved out to the country and I was able to get the horse that I always wanted. I soon became very involved in 4-H through many animal projects including dog, rabbit, poultry, small market animal and horse. My love for poultry and the genetics behind them grew which led me to start my own poultry breeding program in 2019. I now breed five different breeds of chickens, one breed of duck and two species of quail. I not only sell breeding stock locally but I also ship eggs nationwide for people who are interested in hatching their own birds. This year I had the chance to share my love for poultry with other local youth through a class which I taught at a county event. Outside of the poultry project I am also very involved in the horse project and the dog project. I have competed at the state level in both projects and am considered a valuable leader in both projects. In the horse project I help teach the jumping work nights and in the dog project I am the showmanship instructor. These 4-H projects have allowed me to participate in many other activities outside of 4-H in my local communities. Because of my dog project experience I had the chance to become a handler for a local golden retriever breeder who is unable to get around with his dogs in the show ring. All of these experiences really cemented down my idea of becoming a veterinarian. With my small animal experiences I have decided that I want to become a small animal vet with household exotics experience so I can work with house birds, cavy and rabbits. I have been trying to get in all of the vet experience that I can before I head off to college this next fall. As a volunteer at my local humane society I not only work with socializing the animals but I also get to help at all of the vaccine and spay/neuter clinics that the humane society puts on. Additionally I have been putting in shadowing hours at my city's local small animal vet and with my local equine vet office. Outside of the humane society and vet offices I have also volunteered at my local zoo where I was able to help take care of other types of animals which included kangaroos, serval cats, porcupines, lemurs and many other amazing species. After working with so many different types of animals it is definitely very hard to choose a favorite. All of the animals I have worked with are very intelligent in their own ways. In the end though I believe my favorite animal would be a horse, they are very similar to me in many ways, both stubborn and hard working at the same time but very loyal once a relationship has been created. I am very excited to start my higher education towards becoming a veterinarian. I am very passionate about this career choice and know that it will take a lot of work and dedication to get into vet school. I know that I will continue to push myself in my academics and experiences.

I have wanted to be a veterinarian ever since I could remember. I grew up having frequent experiences with a variety of animals. These experiences came mainly from my local 4-H program, friends/family pets, and our own pets. Once old enough, I gave the majority of my free time to volunteer at different animal places in my area. Through a veterinarian friend I was able to help with a local native American reservation spay/neuter clinic which is what ultimately set my career path to become a veterinarian. After helping with this clinic for a few years I started getting other volunteer experiences, these included; feral cat spay/neuter clinics, shadowing/helping out at a few different vet clinics (large and small animal), volunteering at the local zoo (where I got to help feed animals and clean cages), along with helping out at my county's humane society where I mainly worked with the dogs on basic training. All of these different experiences have helped me realize exactly how needed veterinarians are in my area. I am a recently graduated high school senior and I will be attending the University of Wisconsin-River Falls this fall with a major in Animal Science with a Pre-Vet track. I am very hardworking and very excited to start my future in the veterinary world. All of my animal experiences so far have set me up for success in this career path, especially since I have a lot of hands on experience with the spay/neuter clinics that I volunteered at. I believe that whatever veterinary track that I choose to take (likely household exotics but maybe I'll change to large animal) that I will be able to make an impact. One thing that being an active member in 4-H has taught me is about how I, at any age and any point in my life, can make an impact on my community, and potentially the world. Through 4-H I had the opportunity to be one of nine youth selected from my state to attend the National 4-H Conference in Washington DC this past spring. This national conference was an amazing experience for me, especially as a pre-vet track, because I was selected to be one of the students which would do a presentation to the USDA. Doing a presentation to the USDA allowed my group and I to sit down and speak with some very important people that work through this federal agency. I had the honor to speak directly with the Secretary of Agriculture and the lead USDA scientist. Both of these conversations led me to finding some really good veterinary resources both through the USDA and locally. In the end, the USDA staff that listened to our presentation were so amazed at some of our information and ideas that they were wanting to use a portion of our presentation for their next round table discussion about that topic with the President. This is an example of how I already have made an impact in my community (potentially the whole country) and I will continue to do so throughout my veterinary future. I believe that I would be a good candidate for this award because I am very hardworking and I know exactly what I want my future to look like and how I will get to that point. Thank you for reading my application.

Throughout my entire life I have been around animals. I grew up with animals of many different species and had many opportunities to work with additional exotic type animals as well. However what really pushed my passion to become a veterinarian was my experiences through 4-H. Being a part of my county's 4-H program was very influential to my choice in becoming a veterinarian in a few different ways. I was a part of the poultry program where I raised ducks, chickens and quail, the horse project and was also a very active member in the dog project. All of my animal projects created opportunities for many educational experiences which allowed me to grow my knowledge in not only the species I personally raised but also other similar species. These educational experiences included dissections, getting to shadow large and small animal vets, and being able to do an eye dissection lab at the local veterinary school. All of these experiences guided my love for veterinary work as my future career. The two experiences which I believe really made me realize that I want this as a career were; my shadowing experiences with large and small animal vets and my National 4-H Conference experience in Washington DC. My shadowing experiences helped me realize that I wouldn't only be helping an animal feel better but I would also help my community. Veterinarians help the community everyday. They do this by helping to control the feral dog/cat population and giving vaccines which help prevent the spread of infectious diseases among animals, additionally large animal vets can help maintain a healthy food industry so the meat we eat and the milk we drink is from healthy well maintained animals. My experiences at the National 4-H experience were just as compelling. In this conference all 350 youth from 48 states and 4 territories were split into 20 different groups where we had an assigned federal agency which we were to create a presentation about. These presentations were based off of questions which were provided by the agency. At the end of the conference we then presented these presentations at that federal agency's headquarters. My group received the USDA which I feel was a great agency. Throughout my research I learned that I had interest in possibly becoming a veterinarian for the USDA where I would be able to help the community more widespread. This choice was quickly cemented when I was able to meet and talk with some very amazing people at the USDA who listened to my group's presentation. These people included the Secretary of Agriculture, the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, the Director of NIFA and the lead USDA scientist. At that moment I felt more drawn to that exact career choice than I ever had about any other career. I know that it will be very difficult in these upcoming years of schooling in order to even get into vet school, but I know that this is the career I truly want and that I will work very hard for it. I am very excited to start an internship with the USDA this summer to get a foot in the door years in advance so I can hopefully create a relationship with the USDA veterinarians in my state. I am excited to see what experiences and opportunities await in my future.

I have been interested in Veterinary medicine ever since I knew what a veterinarian was. I have been around animals my entire life which range from cats to dogs to horses and many others along the way. For most of my life I have also been a part of 4-H where I have shown countless animals at the county and state level along with teaching educational animal related classes to other youth within my region. 4-H additionally taught me many leadership skills which I know that I would need in the veterinary field. I have been a showmanship instructor for my counties dog project, a junior handler for a local dog breeder and a poultry instructor for my counties poultry project. For the past five years I have had the opportunity to own my own poultry breeding business which has allowed me to create connections with other animal people across the country. However, what truly set my heart on becoming a veterinarian was my love for genetics, anatomy, and creating/inspiring change. Throughout the years I have thrown around the idea of becoming either an equine vet, small animal vet or household exotics vet, however, recently I have decided that I would like to pursue my career in meat animals to hopefully eventually work as a veterinarian for the USDA. Last week I had the amazing opportunity to travel out to Washington DC and work with the USDA on a presentation. Throughout this experience I learned of all the many different USDA job opportunities, including the veterinary medicine careers. I had never particularly been interested in eventually working for a big company, however I felt that the USDA was not run like any other big company. I was very excited to learn about all of the different things that a USDA veterinarian took part in, which included helping the future of veterinary medicine. I don't want to have a career where I just follow along with everyone else and stick to the basics. I want a career where I can make discoveries and create change within the field and communities across the country. Being a leader within my community and my nation is what I ultimately want in a career. I feel that my love for animals and experience with animals at this age will make me a great future veterinarian that can hopefully make changes for the better inside and outside of my career.

I have wanted to be a veterinarian ever since I knew what a veterinarian was. I have always been obsessed with animals of all species. Because of my love for animals my parents decided to have me join 4-H in 4th grade. We however lived in the city and I was only able to show my dog and a rabbit that my parents let me get. In 6th grade we moved out to the country and I was able to get the horse that I always wanted. I soon became very involved in 4-H through many animal projects including dog, rabbit, poultry, small market animal and horse. My love for poultry and the genetics behind them grew which led me to start my own poultry breeding program in 2019. I now breed five different breeds of chickens, one breed of duck and two species of quail. I not only sell breeding stock locally but I also ship eggs nationwide for people who are interested in hatching their own birds. This year I had the chance to share my love for poultry with other local youth through a class which I taught at a county event. Outside of the poultry project I am also very involved in the horse project and the dog project. I have competed at the state level in both projects and am considered a valuable leader in both projects. In the horse project I help teach the jumping work nights and in the dog project I am the showmanship instructor. These 4-H projects have allowed me to participate in many other activities outside of 4-H in my local communities. Because of my dog project experience I had the chance to become a handler for a local golden retriever breeder who is unable to get around with his dogs in the show ring. All of these experiences really cemented down my idea of becoming a veterinarian. With my small animal experiences I have decided that I want to become a small animal vet with household exotics experience so I can work with house birds, cavy and rabbits. I have been trying to get in all of the vet experience that I can before I head off to college this next fall. As a volunteer at my local humane society I not only work with socializing the animals but I also get to help at all of the vaccine and spay/neuter clinics that the humane society puts on. Additionally I have been putting in shadowing hours at my city's local small animal vet and with my local equine vet office. Outside of the humane society and vet offices I have also volunteered at my local zoo where I was able to help take care of other types of animals which included kangaroos, serval cats, porcupines, lemurs and many other amazing species. After working with so many different types of animals it is definitely very hard to choose a favorite. All of the animals I have worked with are very intelligent in their own ways. In the end though I believe my favorite animal would be a horse, they are very similar to me in many ways, both stubborn and hard working at the same time but very loyal once a relationship has been created. I am very excited to start my higher education towards becoming a veterinarian. I am very passionate about this career choice and know that it will take a lot of work and dedication to get into vet school. I know that I will continue to push myself in my academics and experiences.