莉莉·史密斯19岁

年/主要: Lilly Graduated in 2019 as a 生物学 Major
职业: Doctorate Student at NC State School of Veterinary Medicine
爱好: Running, Hiking, Camping, and traveling to beautiful places

去年夏天，礼来公司在肯尼亚基苏木参加了一项牛奶与安全研究。 她的工作重点是发现牛奶生产中的健康风险。 More specifically, Lilly was looking at how practices in rural milk production impacted milk and health safety in urban areas where the milk may be consumed.

“What I wrote my [Senior Integration Project] on kind of hit the intersection between animal, environmental, and human health. I do think that the way that Covenant has done education has shown me the interconnection between science that impacts all the areas.”

作为一名生物学专业的学生当然不是一件容易的事。 Lilly commented that the rigorous academics helped her feel prepared for her work. In particular, she remembers how Dr. Zuidema required his students to read many scientific research papers, which at the time was not something she appreciated. However, now as Lilly produces doctorate level work, she appreciates the intensity of his curriculum that has helped her feel capable of quality academic writing.

Outside of academics, Lilly appreciated how Covenant shaped her thoughts on how to travel to different countries and experience unique cultures with an open mind. While in Kenya, Lilly indebted much of her ability to build different relationships with people and experience diverse areas of Kenya to her time on the cross country team.

在这一点上，礼来有许多不同的机会去追求。 Her passion for One Health—the ways that animal, human, and environmental health intersect—may lead her to work involving issues of food safety, antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic disease, etc. However, she acknowledged that the veterinary field is extremely broad and many different types of work within that area appeal to her.

“My research this summer was a great opportunity to gain experience in this area, and I am still on a journey to learn about roles in a variety of settings such as public health agencies, clinical practice, research, regulatory medicine, and more. In a year and a half I plan to graduate and will head in one direction, but the exciting thing about this career is that I could do something very different down the road.”