Admittedly, I did not have the most typical path to a PhD program in the animal sciences. As a high school student, I knew I wanted to work with horses, so I applied to Cazenovia College’s program in equine business management. While at Cazenovia, I became involved as a teaching assistant for the equine anatomy and physiology class and in a feeding trial for Cargill. Interacting with students on understanding concepts from class and creating new knowledge through research really excited me. These experiences in teaching and research prompted me to look into graduate school.