Lexi High always wanted to be a veterinarian. \u201cSince I was, like, four years old,\u201d says High, who grew up on a large animal farm in Laurel Hill, N.C. She\u2019s well on her way, thanks in large part to a program designed to make careers in veterinary medicine more accessible to minority students and those from rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, High was the first beneficiary of the University of North Carolina System Veterinary Education Access program, a joint agreement with NC State and UNC-Pembroke. Established in 2017, the program grants selected Pembroke graduates admission to NC State\u2019s College of Veterinary Medicine, provided they meet academic and extracurricular criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each year, a selection committee from both schools picks up to two students and one alternate from the first-year class in the UNC-Pembroke biology program. Pembroke has a relatively high percentage of students that identify as minority. According to the university, 31% identify as Black, 13% as Native American and 8% as Hispanic or Latino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, the program\u2019s second two scholars\u2009\u2014\u2009Allyson Lane and Allyson Chavis\u2009\u2014\u2009graduated from Pembroke into the vet med program. Chavis is a member of the Lumbee Tribe and the first Native American to participate in the program. Lane grew up with High, in Scotland County, N.C., near Pembroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it happens, all three are roommates in Raleigh. And in the end, they each plan to work in North Carolina as veterinarians.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n
Lexi High always wanted to be a veterinarian. \u201cSince I was, like, four years old,\u201d says High, who grew up on a large animal farm in Laurel Hill, N.C. She\u2019s well on her way, thanks in large part to a program designed to make careers in veterinary medicine more accessible to minority students and those from rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, High was the first beneficiary of the University of North Carolina System Veterinary Education Access program, a joint agreement with NC State and UNC-Pembroke. Established in 2017, the program grants selected Pembroke graduates admission to NC State\u2019s College of Veterinary Medicine, provided they meet academic and extracurricular criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each year, a selection committee from both schools picks up to two students and one alternate from the first-year class in the UNC-Pembroke biology program. Pembroke has a relatively high percentage of students that identify as minority. According to the university, 31% identify as Black, 13% as Native American and 8% as Hispanic or Latino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, the program\u2019s second two scholars\u2009\u2014\u2009Allyson Lane and Allyson Chavis\u2009\u2014\u2009graduated from Pembroke into the vet med program. Chavis is a member of the Lumbee Tribe and the first Native American to participate in the program. Lane grew up with High, in Scotland County, N.C., near Pembroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it happens, all three are roommates in Raleigh. And in the end, they each plan to work in North Carolina as veterinarians.<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Program helps underrepresented groups practice veterinary medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Program helps underrepresented groups practice veterinary medicine.\",\"caption\":\"\",\"displayCategoryID\":5}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[56,57,278,523,678,698,731,805,861,1050,1205,1210,1224],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-3762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newswire","category-stories","tag-allyson-chavis","tag-allyson-lane","tag-college-of-veterinary-medicine","tag-hispanic","tag-latino","tag-lexi-high","tag-lumbee-tribe","tag-minority","tag-native-american","tag-scotland-county","tag-unc-pembroke","tag-university-of-north-carolina-system-veterinary-education-access-program","tag-veterinarians"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4990,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3762\/revisions\/4990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3762"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=3762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}