Progress 09/01/24 to 08/31/25
Outputs
Target Audience:Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) students and several collaborating partners have been included during the first year of this planning grant. ABAC serves as the headquarters for all grant activities through its Project Director, Dr. Jennifer Harper. STUDENTS: Dr. Harper serves as the advisor to the ABAC Pre-Vet Club and meets regularly with students. The Pre-Vet Club averages 60 students per monthly meeting and is one of the most active clubs on the ABAC campus. For club meetings, guests include veterinarians, laboratory techs, veterinarian pharmacy representatives, and ABAC alumni that are currently in vet school. The club also participates in regular volunteer projects including animal shelter work and helping to feed low-income children in town. The club also hosts an annual cattle show that raises money for student scholarship. Fields trips are also an exciting activity the club participates in and include visiting zoo hospitals in Georgia and Florida, as well as overnight trips to Wildlife Refuges in coastal Georgia. Overall, the ABAC Pre-Vet Club provides multiple opportunities to reach students at ABAC who are interested in veterinary medicine and want to attend veterinary school after graduation. COLLABORATING PARTNERS: Dr. Harper has met with various groups in person, through phone calls, and on-line meetings. Collaborating partners are a very important part of the audience for this planning grant as well. Dr. Harper met with Mrs. Debi McDade, Director of Interns at White Oak Pastures, to discuss the feasibility of ABAC students completing internships there by working on the farm to learn about regenerative agricultural practices with food service and processing, as well as retail services. Follow up email communication has continued between ABAC and White Oak Pastures regarding timelines and details for potential interns. Several online meetings have taken place between Dr. Harper and the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association (GVMA) specifically with Dr. Keri Riddick, GVMA Executive Director. Drs. Harper and Riddick have discussed addressing the rural veterinarian practitioner crisis in Georgia and throughout the United States. ABAC's unique rural student population is an optimal recruitment body for future veterinarians to potentially fill this gap. The GVMA oversees the Certified Veterinary Assistant (CVA) certification program. This program requires the interested person to complete 500 contact hours under the supervision of a veterinarian followed by a skills assessment exam for the participating individual. Ideally, ABAC students could carry out the CVA with participating veterinarians in our area and throughout the state. The GVMA has also started a social media internship position for an ABAC student each semester. Dr. Harper has had meetings with two local veterinarians to discuss their interest in having ABAC students work in their practices for completion of the CVA Certification. Irwin Animal Clinic (Dr. Hill) and Blackshear Veterinary Hospital (Dr. Cawley) have both expressed interest in collaborating with ABAC. Dr. Harper has also had several meetings with Dr. Berit Bangoura, Director of the University of Georgia-Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory (UGA-TVDIL), to discuss ABAC students completing internships there. The discussion has focused on how many students can be supported each semester and what type of projects would they complete under the supervision of faculty and staff at UGA-TDVIL. Several ABAC students have visited the UGA-TVDIL during meetings. Also, located close to ABAC, is the Nashville Humane Society. Dr. Harper has visited this facility several times with ABAC students. This humane society needs volunteers to help with various tasks at their shelter that houses over 150 cats. ABAC students interested in veterinary medicine need volunteer and animal hours for their resumes. Developing a relationship with this shelter where ABAC students volunteer on a regular and scheduled timeframe is being planned. Additionally, Dr. Harper has also communicated in person and through email with the Shamwari Veterinary and Conservation Experience located in South Africa. Shamwari is a private game reserve with 23,000 hectares of land dedicated to the conservation of fauna and flora species found no where else. They have three-week veterinary programs that ABAC students could participate in to gain unique experiences with African wildlife including lions, various ungulate species, hyenas, giraffes, rhinos, and many other animals. Changes/Problems:For the grant proposal, one of the collaborating partners in the veterinary medicine field included was the Georgia Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Office. Collaborations with this agency have not occurred and will most likely not because this agency's focus would not be directed towards the goals of the grant. This did not affect the progress in year one per stated Goals and Objectives. Other partnerships have been established that were not originally included in the grant proposal including Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa and Hearts to Homes Humane Society in Nashville, Georgia. Collaborations with these organizations directly align with project goals and can provide an even more robust veterinary pipeline to develop. These new relationships that have been formed during the first year of this grant could help ABAC students with opportunities to gain exotic animal experience, volunteer hours, and animal hours. These options can improve student resumes making them even better candidates for veterinary school and increasing their chances of being expected into a program. Additionally, we are exploring a new relationship with a poultry scientist at University of Georgia in Tifton to determine if there are any possibilities for students to gain knowledge in this area for diversity in species. We are hoping this will take the form of additional internship slots at UGA with a focus on poultry disease. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During the first year of this project, the primary focus of the grant has been establishing relationships with various veterinary medicine organizations. The UGA-TVDIL, GMVA, local veterinarian practitioners, and White Oak Pastures can provide advanced professional skills that will promote a greater level of knowledge and experience to ABAC students. The goal of establishing internship programs between ABAC and both UGA-TVDIL and White Oak Pastures will greatly benefit students as they gain knowledge and hands-on experiences that would not have been available to them otherwise. Additionally, having the GVMA connect students to interested veterinarians throughout the state to earn their CVA certification will advance students' chances of getting into vet school tremendously by providing them with the required supervised veterinarian hours needed to apply, which ranges from 250 to 500 hours depending on the college. Other collaborations have been formed during this first year that were not included initially in the grant proposal including Shamwari Conservation Program and Hearts to Homes Humane Shelter. Shamwari, which is in South Africa, has three weeklong programs offered throughout the calendar year for students to participate in veterinary programs that help them gain exotic animal experience by working with animals on the reserve that need veterinary assistance of some type. This type of opportunity is unique and a wonderful resume builder for students. They may take advantage of this through structured study abroad or dedicated internships as funded through external means. Also, a collaboration has been made between ABAC and Hearts to Home Humane Shelter located in Nashville, Georgia that houses approximately 150 cats. ABAC students have visited the shelter three times between March and April of 2025. Students volunteered at the facility and helped do things such as feeding the animals, giving them medicine, and even painting cabinets. Volunteer hours and animal care hours are needed for students when applying to vet school, therefore, this collaboration is a wonderful one because the students gain needed hours and experience, and the shelter receives much needed help. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?While no formal campaign of information dissemination has taken place yet, the initial relationship-building phase of the project involved seven organizations and multiple employees within them. Only the relationships with UGA-TVDIL existed prior to this project, and so, these new community partners were reached as a result of activities with this project in year one. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The second objective with our first project goal of forming new working relationships with appropriate veterinary medicine practitioners including UGA-TVDIL, GVMA, and veterinarian clinics is to develop a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with these practitioners. The development of this MOU will begin in August of 2025 with the goal of it being finished and approved by the collaborating organizations by December 2025. The second objective with our second project goal of establishing a plan for an internship program between ABAC and White Oak Pastures was also to develop a MOU on the same timeline as with the veterinary practitioners. The third project goal for this grant is to disseminate new cooperative partnerships to all participating organizations. This goal will be accomplished by hosting a conference at ABAC to share and communicate ideas between all parties involved in April of 2026. The fourth project goal is to establish a plan and collect data to support a large-scale comprehensive proposal to the NGLCA or other suitable USDA venue. This goal will be examined near the end of the project after all parties have communicated and a plan to move forward can be established and agreed upon by participants.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Problem/Solution: Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) has a student population that is primarily from rural areas and most of these students are underserved and underrepresented due to their social economic status and many are first generation college students from various ethnic backgrounds. Veterinary medicine is an area of interest for a large number of ABAC students. However, many lack knowledge and experience for adequately applying to veterinary school. The state of Georgia, as well as across the United States, is suffering from a shortage of veterinarian practitioners in rural areas. This is especially problematic because most rural animal medicine deals directly with food animal species. If an outbreak of disease or other issue were to occur with food animals, then it would directly impact the economy and health of the state. Preparing ABAC's rural student population for veterinary school is a method to help add more practitioners to fill in the gap for rural areas as most of these students will want to return to for employment as veterinarians. Establishing a veterinary science pipeline connects ABAC with various participating organizations in the veterinary medicine field to encourage and promote communication to help ensure success of this program and address the crisis for the shortage of veterinarians. Through prior work, ABAC students have completed internships at the University of Georgia-Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory (UGA-TVDIL) and those that have applied to vet school have all been accepted into various programs across the country. The internship program at the vet lab clearly has a direct, positive impact on ABAC students. The current project builds on that work and expands ABAC's scope and reach with this approach. GOAL 1, Establish a veterinary science pipeline learning program for rural Georgia. Major Activities Completed: The work completed this year directly impacted ABAC students and collaborating organizations. New relationships were formed with veterinary medicine practitioners at Irwin Animal Clinic and Blackshear Animal Hospital through several in person meetings between January and May of 2025. The veterinarians at these clinics are excited to have ABAC students shadow or work with them. One ABAC student started shadowing Dr. Cawley at Blackshear Animal Hospital in January and three ABAC students started working with Dr. Hill at Irwin Animal Clinic between November 2024 and March 2025. ABAC has worked with the UGA-TVDIL for four years given various sponsored funding as the lab hosts ABAC students for internships every semester. This project will continue and build on this existing relationship. A new director of the lab, Dr. Berit Bangoura was hired at the beginning of the year. Several meetings were held between Dr. Harper and Dr. Bangoura in the first half of this year. Dr. Bangoura is excited to maintain the close relationship that has been developed between the two colleges and continue internships for ABAC students into the future. A collaboration between ABAC and the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association (GVMA) has been developed with many meetings between Dr. Harper and Dr. Riddick (Executive Director of the GVMA) through Zoom and in person meetings from September 2024 through June 2025. The GVMA is responsible for the Certified Veterinary Assistant (CVA) Program. To receive this certification, an individual must work under the direct supervision of a veterinarian or vet tech for 500 hours, then pass an exam that tests their knowledge and ability to carry out specific skills and procedures. The GVMA is helping ABAC to find veterinarians in the state that ABAC students can work for to receive their CVA. This will benefit our students greatly because it will make them better applicants for vet school when they apply. It also benefits the practitioners because many of the students do not get paid to complete this process at their clinics. Objective 1: Form new working relationships with appropriate veterinary medicine practitioners during year one. This objective was accomplished. Objective 2: Develop Memoranda of Understanding with appropriate veterinary medicine practitioners during year two will be accomplished in year two. GOAL 2, Establish a plan for an internship program between ABAC and White Oak Pastures. Major Activities Completed: White Oak Pastures is a farm located in Bluffton, Georgia that focuses on restorative agricultural practices. Because ABAC is an agricultural college, it is very important that our students learn practices that are environmentally sustainable and leading the field into the future, as well as learn basic agricultural practices. White Oak Pastures already has a thriving internship program. Incorporating ABAC students into their existing model would be ideal and benefit students greatly through these experiences. In person meetings and multiple emails between ABAC and Mrs. Debi McDade, Internship Director of White Oak Pastures, occurred during the first half of 2025. During these communications, plans and logistics for an internship program were discussed and a general internship strategy was developed. Ideally, ABAC students would complete internships between Fall and Spring Semesters when other internships are not occurring at White Oak Pastures. If ABAC students were to do internships then, housing would be available for them, and they could also rotate through various learning opportunities on the farm with their already established internship programs that include (1) Farm and Animal, and (2) Agritourism. White Oak Pastures would benefit from this arrangement because it would provide them with additional revenue generated from housing, help on the farm and stores when they are usually short staffed, and meet their educational outcome goals. Objective 1: Form a new working relationship with White Oak Pastures during year one was met in year one through various meetings, correspondence, and developed conceptual plans. Objective 2: Develop a Memorandum of Understanding with White Oak Pastures during year two will be accomplished in year two. Goal 3: Disseminate new cooperative partnerships to all participating organizations will be accomplished in year two. Goal 4: Establish a plan and collect data to support a large-scale comprehensive proposal to the NGLCA or other USDA venue will be accomplished in year two.
Publications
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