The University of Kentucky has secured three grants to help attract more students into veterinary sciences as the state and nation continue to struggle with a shortage of large animal vets.
The programs use “horses as a hook” to help connect interested students to the science behind animals, according to Meghan Wulster-Radcliffe, UK’s director of strategy for equine initiatives.
The grants come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has identified about 250 areas where specific veterinarians are needed across the country. In Kentucky, the federal agency recognizes five areas of need for veterinarians, the majority being food animal veterinarians in rural areas.
Wulster-Radcliffe said the three USDA grant programs help close the gap between interest in animals and a student’s ability to apply the science.
“Essentially where that came out of is lots of times in college you hear kids say things like, ‘I love animals’ or ‘I love horses and I want to be a vet, but I hate science,’” Wulster-Radcliffe said.
Students who regularly work with animals, like those who grew up farming, may not realize they’re using science regularly, Wulster-Radcliffe noted. Additionally, those who come from more urban backgrounds may not know the variety of industry jobs available to them.
Wulster-Radcliffe said there’s also fewer students coming from farming backgrounds in recent years, reducing the number of young professionals comfortable with large animals. This is a factor in the nationwide shortage, as well.
One of UK’s new programs targets middle and high schoolers.
“It's also about going back and approaching earlier and earlier with something people are interested in like horses,” Wulster-Radcliffe said. “Then saying, ‘Here (are) all the things you can do and work with horses, and work with STEM.’ And if we start you early enough and you have this educational base, you are going to be good at it, you are going to understand it, and you are going to love it.’”
UK is leveraging the USDA’s Food and Agriculture Non-formal Education grant to interest middle and high school students in horse genetics. The modules should be available online by June 2027. It’s known as Saddle2STEM and is done in partnership with the University of Connecticut.
“Our eventual goal with that program is actually to create the same type of program we're doing on genetics across fields, so a physiology one, a nutrition one and an animal health one,” Wulster-Radcliffe said.
It was piloted with 125 students across both states, and 25 nonformal educators have been trained.
The effort for undergraduate students puts them in a nine-week summer program working on a research project. It is expected to train 40 to 50 students over the course of five years.
Stable to STEM requires half of the students be from Kentucky, while the rest can be residents of other states.
A third program works to engage high school students with a pre-vet experience day and a “bootcamp” for interested 11th and 12th graders in the summer.
Director of the pre-veterinary mentoring program Amber McNamara is one of the collaborators on the Veterinary Services Grant Program from the USDA.
“That grant really is designed to increase the level of information and preparation for students that have an interest in pursuing veterinary medicine, especially starting with students in high school,” McNamara said. “Those students that come from rural backgrounds often may not see that pathway, or not know fully how they may see themselves in that pathway.
"And hopefully, through this program, we'll have the tools that it takes to elucidate the pathway, determine if that's a great fit for them and then get them as best informed as we can to get into vet school and, ideally, come back to Kentucky to practice in those rural areas where they're most needed," she continued.
The program is expected to reach about 350 students, as well as 30 veterinary students who will act as mentors. This summer was the first of a three-year grant.
McNamara said students get exposure to animals at the undergraduate level based on what major they choose, and the programs exist to build hands-on experience and increase exposure and enthusiasm in veterinary careers.
“My job is to really help them understand what the pathway to vet school could look like, what it means in terms of timing, finances, travel in terms of where they may go to veterinary school, but also help them if they decide that for whatever reason that's not the right fit for their skills, for their needs, for their goals,” McNamara said. “There are so many other important jobs within animal health, within agriculture, that could be a great fit for them, as well.”
