FROM DREAMS TO REALITY Born in Taiwan, a small island on the southeast coast of China, Jonathan Ting Lai came to the U.S. when he was 11 years old. Currently a third-year veterinary student at NC State with a mixed animal focus, he can’t wait to become a veterinarian who would treats both larger animals like cows and horses and small animals like dogs and cats. Why did you decide to come to NC State? The combination of academic excellence and affordable tuition made NC State my first choice, very easily. In fact, it made no sense to go anywhere else, even though I was admitted to three other schools. How has NC State encouraged you to Think and Do the Extraordinary? NC State has encouraged me to believe in myself and just do it. When we first started as freshman, I remember that I was really afraid of “What if? What if I fail out? What if I don’t graduate?” But on the first day, and multiple professors tell us each day, “Believe in yourself, just do it.” Now I’m a third-year and I still think about that every day. We’ve gone through so many exams, taken so many practicums, and it’s because we can believe in ourselves, take that initiative to do it and conquer it.
What has been special about your experience here so far? The curriculum here is great in that you get didactics, where you’re in classrooms and they teach you all the details, but then you’re also in all kinds of labs where everything is hands on. In addition to that, the variety of topics that are taught here is really amazing. They teach us everything from large animals to small animals to exotic animals, even fish, snakes, amphibians and everything that you can think about that is animal related. There are also all kinds of ethnicities, cultures, religions and different socioeconomic backgrounds working together. Why is it important for a veterinary student to have exposure to diversity in backgrounds and focus areas? I think diversity is so important for the student body. The way I see it, our nation is incredibly diverse so the student body should be proportionally diverse because that would best prepare us for the real world. Here, we’re already exposed to all kinds of different subjects. Then we really see a diversity here of different ethnicities, cultures and religions. I feel that really prepares students for when we go out to the real world and we see that all the clients and all the animals are so diverse.