The Oath, Spring 2018

Oath

The

TEACH • HEAL • DISCOVER

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Building DVM Skills page 3

Portraits of Courage page 8

Medical Mystery page 11

Student Voice page 15

Supporting Students page 17

The Cancer Exodus Grad Student Tyler Allen Lands On Forbes' 30 Under 30 List page 5

FROM THE DEAN

Expanding Our Vision Looking back over the six years I’ve been at NC State, it is amazing to reflect on how many new faces there are at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Looking forward, it is even more amazing to realize their impact.

Let me give you one example. At the beginning of 2012, there were 132 CVM faculty members.

At the beginning of this year, there are 164, which means we grew by 24 percent.

There is more.

Over this same time period we saw many retirements, as some of the first faculty hired into the college decided to step back. What this means is that of our current 164 faculty, 74 were hired during this same six-year period.

45% of CVM faculty were hired during 2012-2017 This is a lot of change, nearly half the college and twice the rate of change across the university. This kind of change brings opportunities and challenges, and our departments in particular have worked hard to welcome the new folks and help launch their careers. Alongside these new faculty, there has been 1

corresponding change in our staff, with research specialists hired to support new programs and teaching specialists hired to support new curriculum, just to mention two areas.

So, what about the impact? If we look at research and consider who ran our biggest funded programs in 2012, it is fascinating to see that today almost all our large programs belong to new faculty hired in the last six years. We have seen the retirement of many of the most successful researchers in our history, but their places have been taken by our new colleagues and, in fact, our research has grown by 7 percent annually over the same period.

The change is not just in research. Although it’s not easy to put a number on it, we see similar changes in our clinics and classrooms. With new faces come new ideas and techniques, from radiation oncology to feline medicine, and new teaching focuses, such as communication training and problem solving.

We at the CVM think and do differently. And that’s one thing that won’t change.

D. Paul Lunn Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine NC State University

THINK & DO

Extraordinary Leadership Suzanne Kennedy-Stoskopf, research professor of wildlife and ecosystem health, was honored with the American College of Zoological Medicine’s lifetime achievement award. Kennedy-Stoskopf worked closely with the award’s namesake, Murray Fowler, sharing a dedication to integrating zoological medicine into professional veterinary education.

Kennedy-Stoskopf also received the Emily Dolensek Award from the American Association of Veterinarians, honoring her zoo animal and free-ranging wildlife conservation efforts.

Anatomic pathology professor John Cullen received the 2017 Robert Farrell Award from the C.L. Davis-Thompson Foundation. The award recognizes Cullen’s excellence as a lecturer for the foundation, which advances veterinary and comparative pathology education. Cullen was also named a distinguished member of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.

Anthony Blikslager, professor of equine surgery and gastroenterology, is a co-investigator on an intercollegiate research team awarded a UNC Inter-Institutional Planning Grant to form the North Carolina Center for Esophageal Pharmacoengineering, (the first of its kind in the country.)

The center will focus on the development of new treatment approaches for animal and human esophageal diseases.

Matthew Breen, professor of genomics and the Oscar J. Fletcher Distinguished Professor of Comparative Oncology Genetics, was awarded the John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year Award from NC State. Breen, who has several inventions at various commercialization stages, is the founder of Sentinel Biomedical, which licenses genetic tests he developed at the CVM to screen for mutations in dogs that may be early warning signs of cancer. Breen tied for the award with Marian McCord, associate dean for research in the College of Natural Resources.

Faculty and staff recognition news?

Email CVMCommunications@ncsu.edu.

Top-bottom: Suzanne Kennedy-Stoskopf, John Cullen, Anthony Blikslager and Matthew Breen 2

EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE

Building DVM Skills One Conversation at a Time Jenna Herrington is in the middle of a talk she’ll have throughout her career and will never get easier.

Her words are direct, and her tone is comforting. After being diagnosed with Lyme disease, Telly is showing clear signs of kidney failure.

Herrington gives Telly’s owner, Karen, some options. One is more aggressive therapy, but Herrington says that for dogs in Telly’s situation, heightened therapy is successful about 1 percent of the time.

“That’s why today I think we need to discuss euthanasia as an option,” says Herrington. "It’s important that we discuss what you’re comfortable with and what really is going to be the best option, both for you and him.”

Karen’s body stiffens; her eyes widen, her shoulders slouch.

She stops looking at Herrington and glances over at Telly.

“He’s still pretty young. There’s nothing that can be done to put him back together?” says Karen as she slowly pets Telly.

Eventually, Karen agrees to the procedure, then says she wants to have a private moment with Telly. Herrington gets up slowly and asks again if Karen has any questions.

“OK, good,” says a voice from a corner of the exam room.

“What do you think went well and what didn’t go as well?”

Herrington isn’t a veterinarian — yet. She’s a third-year student 3

at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. Karen ButlerWoolford isn’t a real client; she regularly plays a pet owner for the CVM. And that voice from the corner of the room is Peter Cowen, associate professor of epidemiology and public health at the CVM. Telly isn’t even real. He’s a life-sized stuffed animal.

It is all a simulation that’s part of the CVM’s Advanced Clinical and Professional Communication class, the culmination of three semesters of communication training over three years for doctor of veterinary medicine students.

In early classes, students practice effective communication skills for working with animal owners, colleagues and senior clinicians. During their third year, they engage in carefully crafted veterinary simulations, everything from check-ups to end-of-life cases. Fellow students and veterinarians provide a lot of feedback, all in preparation for fourth-year clinical rotations when they have daily interactions with NC State Veterinary Hospital clients.

And they are videotaped. Like a big-league pro pitcher analyzing a fastball, students review their simulation work, listening to what information they give and how they give it, if they smile or if they ignore client questions.

“It doesn’t just help students understand the importance of effective communication, it helps them to better understand their own communication,” said April Kedrowicz, assistant

professor of communication who coordinates the pre-clinical courses for DVM students.

The CVM’s veterinary communication curriculum is one of the most robust in the country, an innovative, thorough approach to instilling communication values that apply to everyday veterinary situations. The Class of 2018 will be the first to leave the CVM with a full communications course load.

Students work on reflective listening, repeating what the client says to make sure they fully understand. They learn to integrate more open-ended questions that encourage mutually beneficial dialogue.

Brenda Stevens, clinical associate professor of general practice, works with many third-year students going through the simulations.

“People remember how you made them feel,” said Stevens. “If I’m a client and I go in and I feel respected and feel listened to, then I’m going to go back to that veterinarian.”

Just seconds after the Herrington’s client simulation, she is asked for an immediate reflection on her communication approach and is praised overall for her tone and empathy.

“Did you feel you accomplished what you wanted to accomplish?” Cowen asks her.

But it’s empathy that’s at the core of Kedrowicz’s classes.

Students work on what their body language tells clients and what the clients' body language tells them.

“I think I accomplished what I wanted, but I’m not sure that I was comforting enough,” she responds.

During general wellness exam simulations, Karen, playing a client again, mentions that she feeds the dog table scraps.

Butler-Woolford and Cowen say Herrington displayed closed-off body language and she didn’t pause enough to let the client ask questions.

“I know you’re doing that because you love him,” says student Jess Romanent, before mentioning to Karen that it may be good to cut back just a little bit on the treats.

“EMPATHY IS NOT AT ODDS WITH BEING PROFESSIONAL,” SAID KEDROWICZ. “EMPATHY IS REALLY ABOUT PUTTING YOURSELF IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES.”

“Think about where to pause,” Cowen says. “And think, what do you do by pausing? You are letting her ask questions and it means you have to answer her questions and you don’t know where it’s going to take you. But be OK with that. That’s your job, right?” ~Jordan Bartel/NC State Veterinary Medicine,

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DISCOVERY SPOTLIGHT

The Cancer Exodus Tyler Allen earns a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his research on how certain cancer and tumor cells exit the bloodstream to form new tumors — a find dubbed the cancer exodus hypothesis.

He always had a hungry mind, the kind of kid overflowing with questions and craving immediate answers.

DISCOVERY SPOTLIGHT Tyler Allen didn’t always get them.

“Most of the time I was saying, ‘Why? But why?’ — probably to an annoying degree to the adults around me,” said Allen. “A lot of the time my mom would explain things to me, but other times she would flip it on me and say, ‘Why do you think it happens?

What can you do to find out why something is this way and how it happens?’”

That life lesson stuck. For nearly four years, Allen, who is set to earn his Ph.D. in comparative biomedical sciences from the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine in the spring, has been able to think about some of the most pressing and complex questions about cancer — and answer them.

That’s why he was just named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, which highlights visionaries in 20 different industries. At 25, Allen is one of the youngest included in the science category. His cancer hypothesis is a groundbreaking finding that could pave the way for more effective stem cell therapies and early detection of when cancer spreads.

“There was something so appealing to me about the biomedical 5

research being done here at the vet school,” said Allen. “There’s still a lot that we don’t know about diseases, especially cancer.

And here we get to help with that.”

Allen, who joined the lab of CVM associate professor of regenerative medicine Ke Cheng in 2014, has been involved with some of the most impactful developments in medical research during his graduate school career. He has been part of a research team that has shown how to quickly generate large amounts of lung stem cells to use in treatment and developed a synthetic version of stem cells for the heart.

He is also the lead author on a recent study discovering that therapeutic stem cells leave the bloodstream in a different way than previously thought, a process the research team termed "angiopellosis" and is part of Allen’s doctoral dissertation. Last year, the National Cancer Institute awarded Allen a pre-doctoral fellowship.

Allen’s insights into the ways cancer cells behave and therapeutic stem cells move are powerful weapons in the fight against cancer. In order to effectively treat cancer, we must understand its intricacies.

“The thing that interested me about cancer was that the cells

are not inherently evil,” said Allen. “Cells are meant to grow” and divide, so what they’re doing is doing their job extremely well, so well that it’s causing a tumor. To me, that is fascinating. It was just something I wanted to help answer: What’s going on here and what can we do about this?”

An Early Passion Science always came naturally to Allen. He was born in Houston, the youngest of three sons and with no scientists in the family.

One day in middle school biology class, he looked at his cheek cells under a microscope and was transfixed.

“I wanted to focus on an area where I felt there was already a huge need for research or that there would be an increasing need in the future. Both cancer and heart disease fall into that area. I wanted to contribute,” said Allen.

He still vividly recalls learning about photosynthesis and genetic sequencing of cells, which he still calls, “the most amazing

thing of all time.”

Allen moved with his family to Raleigh right before high school; his mother, Alveda, wanted to be closer to family members in the state. When deciding on colleges, he gravitated immediately toward NC State, attracted to its biology program and its welcoming atmosphere, he said.

He arrived at the university with four main interests: genetics, plants, cancer and stem cells. He has been able to study all four.

During his time as an undergraduate, Allen, who had planned to primarily focus on plant biology, got his first taste of cancer research. He worked in the lab of Jon Horowitz, professor of cancer biology and assistant vice chancellor for research, who is now on Allen’s dissertation committee. While there, he studied how two cancer-related proteins interact with each other and affect cancer patients.

That experience sharpened his research focus and drew his attention to the CVM.

Science For All Allen isn’t what you’d call a lab person; he’s honest enough to tell 6

A cancer cell, the moment it divides. Illustration by G. Cancemi you that. The science is thrilling, but there’s only so much data he can analyze and charts and graphs to do and redo before he gets a bit restless.

something so complex can also be so amazing and beautiful,” said Allen. “I never want to talk about my research and not have someone understand.”

But everything about Cheng’s lab — the pioneering stem cell research, the unique regenerative medicine focus — and the man himself appealed to Allen. After he earns his Ph.D., Allen is eager to continue a career in biomedical science.

A recent video, the electric, colorfully pulsating “Heart of Gold,” shows red blood cells flowing through the beating heart of a zebrafish, showcasing how the team studies the regenerative capabilities of embryonic zebrafish hearts to develop treatments for human heart disease. With videos, Allen said, he is able to convey more of his work than he can through photos or bar graphs.

“What I really liked about Ke Cheng is not just his research and his track record, but him as a person,” said Allen, sitting in an office at the CVM’s new state-of-the-art, 45,000-square foot Biomedical Partnership Center. “His research is so incredibly interesting, and that drew me in, but he is truly a good person.”

And while Allen has an integral role in much of the Cheng lab’s complicated cardiac, cancer and stem cell work, it’s the way Allen shares that work with the rest of us that sets him apart.

Always comfortable with public speaking and more of a visual learner, Allen has taken his tantalizing but complex research and made it accessible. Over the years, he has created award-winning videos that conveying his research with attention-grabbing visuals.

“When I was growing up, one of the reasons I loved science was because I had teachers who took the time to develop their ability to communicate their science, to get across how 7

And during the NC State’s Graduate School’s Three Minute Thesis competition this year, Allen took home second place for his confident, crystal-clear presentation that broke down the cancer exodus hypothesis in a way that never talked down to a non-scientific audience.

“It has been such a privilege to work with all the great minds at the College of Veterinary Medicine,” said Allen. “Being here has helped me develop as a person and become the scientist I am today.” ~Jordan Bartel/NC State Veterinary Medicine

FROM THE HEART

Portraits of Courage Bella 8

They are pets. They are best friends.

They are survivors.

These photos represent the many dogs and cats who have had successful cancer treatments at the NC State Veterinary Hospital.

Bella

Murphy

The images, striking and inspiring, are new additions to portraits of cancer survivors in the Terry Center's oncology service lobby.

Portraits by Diane Lewis Photography

Lightning

“Be optimistic, be strong. Your dog doesn’t know they have cancer. They don’t know they’re sick.” ~ Ella's owner Heather Goodmon

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Ella

“After we took time to digest the diagnosis, we realized we needed to do what was best for Murphy, not for us. He’s happy, and we enjoy him every day.”

Emma Rae

~ Murphy's owner Laura Montross

“When you hear the diagnosis, at first you think it’s over. Then in 30 days, they’re doing fine. They can take so much more than we can -- they’re stoic. I’ve learned a lot from her.” ~ Emma Rae's owner Charles Warner

Meech

Dolce

Butters

Ricco

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EXTRAORDINARY CARE

Tackling a Medical Mystery A year ago, it was difficult for Yogi to move. The 13-year-old thoroughbred started having mild colic episodes that over time became more frequent and severe. While eating, he’d slowly lean downward in awkward displays of discomfort. He ate less and less and then barely at all. Owner Regina Taggart started seeing his ribs poke through...

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It marked the beginning of a painful and challenging year, including four hospitalizations at the NC State Equine Veterinary Medical Center, where several treatment approaches seemed to immediately help, but just as quickly showed they really hadn’t.

But NC State’s equine veterinarians never gave up on Yogi and Taggart never gave up on them. That’s why Yogi is here today, and why Taggart still smiles.

For Nimet Browne, it was like spending endless time trying to put together a big puzzle with pieces that never quite fit.

Yogi first arrived at NC State with mild colic, was seen multiple times by multiple doctors for recurrent colic and eventually diagnosed with severe gastric ulcers. Browne, clinical assistant professor of equine internal medicine, first saw Yogi last January during a recheck.

“He was doing quite well and then sort of started sliding back again,” said Browne. “His ulcers returned and he continued to have episodes of colic. It’s not really common for that to happen. So we delved deeper.”

“They said we can find nothing, we can find something scary or we can find something fixable,” said Taggart.

“When it got to the point where I thought I could lose him, it was a hard decision and yet an easy one, because he had a chance. I knew we had to do something and they knew it, too.”

An ultrasound showed thickened tissue in Yogi’s small intestine, about double the size it should be. A biopsy led to a diagnosis of lymphocytic-plasmacytic enteritis, a common Inflammatory bowel disease. Yogi had a mild case, and he did well during monthly checkups.

Then, once again, Yogi started colicking every other day. Another ultrasound yielded another diagnosis — hemoabdomen. Yogi was bleeding internally and his doctors weren’t quite sure why. Hemoabdomen is uncommon for nonathlete or non-working horses like Yogi.

Browne and the equine team suspected trauma to his spleen, probably from being kicked by another horse or some sort of fall. During a weeklong hospital stay, the bleeding stopped and Yogi’s spleen looked good.

Yogi

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But he colicked again, and this time it was severe. The vets couldn’t get a handle on exactly what was going on inside Yogi, but they knew surgery was the only — and last — option.

cope with her own intensely stressful, emotional year.

“I had a really difficult year and a half and this guy was my rock,” she said. “Whatever I was feeling, he sensed it and was always there. When I felt confused or scared, Yogi stayed with me. I felt protected by him on situations that each ride.”

“They said we can find nothing, we can find something scary or we can find something “It’s one of those fixable,” said Taggart. “When it got to the point where I thought solidifies the importance of I could lose him, it was a hard really listening to your client and decision and yet an easy one, understanding that they know because he had a chance. I knew we had to do something their horse better than anyone and they knew it, too.”

After Yogi’s first visit to NC State, Taggart formed a bond with the equine staff, partly because Yogi saw almost every internist in the service and was also seen by the general else,” said Nimet Browne. medical and surgery services.

It was also a hard decision Everyone from first-year residents because of Taggart’s history with Yogi. A clinical social to experienced surgeons saw Yogi and several formed close worker in private practice, she became curious about equine relationships with Taggart. assistance as a form of therapy for clients. Taggart researched horse therapy and visited places that were successfully using it with children.

She found Yogi one day on a trip to Southern Pines, drawn to his sweet nature. At the same time, Taggart was struggling to

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“I HAVE A LOT OF SUPPORT IN MY LIFE, BUT HE’S A SPECIAL ONE,” SAID TAGGART. “I HAVE A GREAT FAMILY. I HAVE A GREAT HUSBAND, BUT YOGI AND I HAVE A CONNECTION THAT’S BEYOND WORDS.”

Regina Taggart

”I think when she realized I believed her, that we believed there was something seriously wrong with Yogi even when he was presenting typically mild conditions, I think that’s when we bonded. She saw we were all working very hard to figure everything out,” said Browne.

Taggart said it was her unbreakable trust in the team that gave her the strength to approve Yogi’s exploratory surgery.

“They deeply understand that this is an animal you love and you care about and they are going to do their best,” she said.

“They made that clear and they connected with me. A lot of vets don’t do that.”

A Very Special Guy The surgery lasted five hours. Staff, including internal medicine resident Erin Eaton, would periodically come out of surgery to tell Taggart that everything was going well, that Yogi was hanging in there.

During Yogi’s procedure, clinical assistant professor of equine surgery, Timo Prange, found a narrowing at the very end of Yogi’s small intestine, right before it goes into the cecum, the beginning of the large intestine. Food was not able to properly move through the area, said Browne, so likely small bits of feed were getting stuck, leading to his severe abdominal stress.

For Yogi, Prange performed a rare bypass surgery and a complicated ileectomy, creating an opening between the cecum and ileum. A lesion found during the surgery likely explains the stomach ulcers and some of the small intestine inflammation.

“Everyone had a bit of a role in figuring out what was going on — everyone,” said Browne. “We don’t give up.”

Taggart waited around in the hospital until she could see Yogi; she wasn’t going anywhere. Yogi was shivering when he walked back into his stall and staff put a blanket on him; they told Taggart that was normal. At that point, it had been seven hours since his surgery began. For the next 48 hours, she visited her horse about three times a day.

Soon, the veterinarians let her feed Yogi by hand.

carrots daily, which he shared with the horses around him, Browne said.

He gained weight and his personality returned. He would stick his nose out between the slats of his stall so Browne would give him treats. He would just stand there, looking at her until she did. If he didn’t get a treat, he would get visibly angry and shake his head.

“Among our horses, he didn’t spend the most amount of time in the hospital,” said Browne, “but he certainly had a very large impact on the people around him.”

Now, Yogi spends his time in a pasture overlooking a forest of high trees at Fox Valley Stables near New Hill, where he receives wonderful care and attention, said Taggart. After surgery, he didn’t colic for at least 30 days, the first time that had happened in more than a year.

“I remember Erin saying, ‘I’m determined to discharge him!’” said Taggart. “And then I realized what she meant was that he’s going to make it. He is not going to die.”

Taggart usually visits Yogi twice a day — she spends most of her free time with him — and she often texts pictures of Yogi to some of his favorite clinicians at NC State. Recently, he was admitted to the hospital for a few weeks after suffering from an equine parvovirus that attacked his liver. The equine service saved his life again.

“I see him as a miracle,” she said. “He really is.”

Taggart is now able to spend time with Yogi on matters unrelated to his health. She’s working on his manners. The master of the art of begging is now learning how to stop when Taggart tells him to.

She hopes to ride Yogi again one day again, though she said she’d be OK if that never happens. What she wants most is for Yogi to be his happy self and to be strong enough to gallop in the green, shaded pasture behind his stall.

“It was only for five minutes, but it was amazing to see him just being a horse again. He was happy,” said Taggart.

“If I hadn’t found him, there would still be a big empty space, emotionally, in me,” said Taggart. “I don’t know what it would have been like without him.”

Yogi stayed at the hospital for a while after surgery, often wearing a blanket with his name on it, though everyone knew who he was. Taggart would bring him organic fruit and

~Jordan Bartel/NC State Veterinary Medicine

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EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE

Student Voice:

The Power of Mentorship Ten years ago, I worked at the United States Food and Drug Administration as a veterinary pharmacology intern. I was a young, motivated pre-vet student enrolled at NC State with dreams of becoming a veterinarian, but I struggled to stay on track.

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and career, but I knew it needed to involve working with animals.

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The paper is smudged; the edges look worn. I cannot remember how many times I have lost it.

When I show people the card, I always explain why it’s so important.

In the back of a conference room, where I sat terrified of the medical jargon I could barely spell, a veterinarian sat down beside me and asked for my opinion on his research summary.

After discussing everything from pharmacokinetics to the game of cricket, Ronald Baynes handed me a business card and told me to contact him if he could ever be of any help on my path towards becoming a doctor of veterinary medicine.

That business card was the key that unlocked my future career.

Despite a hectic schedule, Dr. Baynes takes students of any experience level under his wing each school year to give handson experience in the career he loves.

Dr. Baynes and many countless mentors I have had during my time at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, have provided the place to dream dreams and build visions.

By now, he has mentored hundreds of undergraduate, graduate and veterinary students. I am one of those lucky ones.

I started my research career as an undergraduate in the Food Animal and Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) at the CVM, working with everything from pigs to calves and goats. Through mentoring, I pursued research training as a student in the dual DVM/Ph.D program in food animal pharmacology.

Whenever my lab results were not ideal or my grades were not where I wanted them, Dr. Baynes would smile and then congratulate me, saying, “Failure just means you get to try again.”

His pathological optimism made some of the worst days in lab a little bit more bearable.

The mark of a good leader is measured by the impact he has on the people he leads. Through mentorship, I began to realize just how much being a part of Dr. Baynes research lab taught me.

Mentorship encourages you to take leadership and aim for higher goals.

By having a mentor who believes in you and vouches for you, one who is willing to take the risk to share their network, you know automatically that they will go the extra mile to give you a hand when you need it.

Because of these outstanding professors, I found myself wanting to pass on my passion for research and clinical medicine to other students. One summer, as I worked as a camp counselor teaching high school students about a career in veterinary medicine, that opportunity finally came.

At the end of one of the camps, a bright, dedicated and passionate future NC State pre-vet student named Claire Bublitz asked for my business card. I handed her one of mine, and told her to contact me if I could ever be of any help on her path towards becoming a DVM. Almost four years later, Claire joined the FARAD lab as an incredible undergraduate researcher. We currently work side by side on protecting animal and human health. Students like Claire, who has a contagious enthusiasm for research, reignited my own dedication to this profession.

Mentorship encourages you to take leadership and aim for higher goals. By having a mentor who believes in you and vouches for you, one who is willing to take the risk to share their network, you know automatically that they will go the extra mile to give you a hand when you need it.

That support isn’t just appreciated — it’s life changing. ~Danielle Mzyk Danielle Mzyk is an DVM/Ph.D student and a graduate research assistant in the Department of Population Health and Pathobiology at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Over the course of our lives, there are a few people who have a major influence on the way you look at the world and define what is most important. The mentors I found at the CVM, including Geof Smith, Jennifer Davis and Derek Foster, have all made significant impacts on my life and career.

Pictured from left to right: Danielle Mzyk, Claire Bublitz and Ronald Baynes.

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SUPPORTING EDUCATION

Scholarship Dinner Highlights Private Donor Support for Students Kate Thompson was used to fighting for the education she wanted and deserved.

Growing up in a modest Mississippi town saddled with underfunded schools, she has long juggled extra classes, part-time jobs and community service amid financial strain.

It wasn’t just all part of a game plan to get into her top college choice and be able stay there. It was necessary — and punishing.

“I felt like I was drowning,” Thompson told the audience at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine’s annual scholarship dinner in February, “and I began to feel doubt.”

Thanks to scholarship donors, Thompson said, she developed a confidence in herself she had started to lose.

“Now, I don’t have to fight for my education anymore,” she said.

Thompson, of the Class of 2019, was one of the featured speakers at the scholarship dinner, hosted by the North Carolina Veterinary Medical Foundation. It’s an opportunity for students to express deep gratitude for those who have given so much to help them succeed.

The Michele M. and Ross M. Annable Scholarship covers up to half the cost of tuition and fees for DVM students.

Because of it, Thompson has been able to worry less about money and focus more on her passions: the health of small animals, volunteering in animal shelters and participating in student service organizations.

She’s not alone. At the dinner, Laura Nelson, CVM associate dean and director of academic affairs, said that this past year 17

220 CVM students had been awarded $728,000 in academic scholarships, with more than $350,000 of that coming from private donors.

“We couldn’t do it without you,” said Nelson.

The Class of 2020’s Samantha Lin, a recipient of the Dr. James Edgar Smallwood Scholarship for Student Excellence, told the dinner audience that after graduating from Harvard University, she had been set on going to a different college of veterinary medicine. That was until she closely compared costs and academic reputations and realized NC State was the best choice.

PACK SUPPORT At NC State, scholarship support greatly alleviates the economic burden of the cost of education.

In-state DVM tuition and fees at NC State are the lowest in the nation, and out-of-state students can achieve in-state status after one year. This gives our graduates tremendous opportunity as they start their careers.

In the past year

220 OF 400 enrolled students applied for scholarships.

Private Donor Scholarship Support

$ 379,280 Total Support

Kate Thompson, Class of 2019

“NC State was the right decision,” she said. “I’m indebted to our magnanimous donors who relieve the stress of student debt so we can pursue a career that is motivated not by income, but by rewarding work.”

Raleigh veterinarian and CVM Class of 1994 graduate Kady Gjessing, who recently gave nearly $3.7 million to the CVM, the largest donation from an alumnus, spoke about the Katherin Wolfe Maughan Endowed Scholarship, established by her mother in honor of Gjessing’s grandmother. The scholarship assists veterinary students who are usually 25 and older with educational expenses.

$ 728,000

Gjessing, a member of the NCVMF board, challenged students to, “give back to the place that has given so much to you,” adding that she is committed to establishing the CVM Alumni Giving Back scholarship for future generations of students, for which she would match alumni donations up to $25,000.

“This is a family, guys,” Gjessing said. “And families help each other.” ~Steve Volstad/NC State Veterinary Medicine View the 2018 Scholarship Dinner online: go.ncsu.edu/CVMScholarDinner 18

NC State Veterinary Medicine NC Veterinary Medical Foundation 1060 William Moore Drive • Raleigh, NC 27607 Give Now: Use the giving envelope enclosed, (checks payable to “NCVMF”), or give online at cvm.ncsu.edu/giving.

Contact Us: Giving Office: 919-513-6660 cvmfoundation@ncsu.edu The Oath is published by the NC State Veterinary Medicine Communications and Marketing office.

Contact us at CVMCommunications@ncsu.edu This magazine was printed for a total cost of $4,500, or $1.33 per copy. No state funds were used.

Happy Cows Our dairy cows are milked twice daily... and occasionally get a snow day.

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