9c. Students successfully transition into further education or training, the workforce, or military service.

Anecdotal Success Stories

We have many students who go on to do great things in their life, not all of them are animal related. We feel that our class is important, even to the students choosing other fields of work, since most of the students will have a pet sometime during their lives. Of course, we also have students who have a career in an animal related field. We have included five students who graduated in the 1990s and then four students who graduated in the last ten years.

Elaine Franklin has made a career in wildlife research, specifically studying birds and the bird trade in Vietnam. She was one of a small group of students who went on a summer trip to Peru for a Student Rainforest Workshop. She voluntarily got up early in the morning for the optional birding walks. She also amazed even the local guides by finding a sloth in a tree while we were in a boat motoring up the Amazon River. She saw the sloth with no binoculars. The rest of the boat took over ten minutes to find it with binoculars and with the boat stopped. She definitely has a gift for finding animals in the wild. Even though she works at the University of Hawaii, she has visited the program and spoken to our students about her experiences.

Michael Hart and his best friend in high school always had their hearts set on working in the veterinary field. Michael got his veterinary technician degree. Although his best friend is not working in the field, Michael is working with his veterinarian wife in a practice in Northern Virginia.

Amy Castleman attended the Loudon Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College and received her Veterinary Technician Degree. She was very active in the college and spoke to our classes while she was going to school. She is currently involved in outdoor recreation and education, and teaches pet first aid.

Margaret Kelty has worked in a couple of different zoos since graduating from college. We reconnected with her when she was giving an animal talk to our students at the National Zoo’s Petting Farm and told the students that she had taken the class that they were currently in. She has helped place interns and frequently gave talks for our students when we were at the zoo. She is no longer at the zoo since her husband moves frequently with his job.

Tom Taylor was in the first Animal Science II class that Cindy taught. He went on to work as a surgery assistant at a local veterinary hospital and then was the only animal control officer in a small city nearby.

Matt Neff was the first student we placed as an intern with the National Parks Service. He went on to get a four year degree and came back to the area to work at a county nature center. He has spoken to our classes and sometimes borrowed our animals to use in presentations he gave at the nature center. He recently got a job at the National Zoo and is excited to start giving tours to our students over there.

The last three recent graduates are all veterinary technicians at local clinics. Brittany Smith earned a four year vet tech degree and is pursuing a graduate degree in Biology although she is currently very happy as a vet tech. Both Daisy Torla and George Montanegro work as vet techs in local clinics and are planning on pursuing a veterinary degree in the future.