{"id":74972,"date":"2013-04-01T09:49:03","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T13:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=74972"},"modified":"2013-04-08T10:46:51","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T14:46:51","slug":"class-of-2013-lisa-dauten-future-veterinarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/04\/class-of-2013-lisa-dauten-future-veterinarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2013: Lisa Dauten, Future Veterinarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is part of a series featuring some of this year\u2019s outstanding graduating students, nominated by their academic school or college or another University program in which they participated. Check for additional profiles of students in the Class of 2013<\/a> on UConn Today from now through Commencement.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Lisa<\/a>
Lisa Dauten ’13 (CANR). (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Lisa Dauten \u201913 (CANR) asked her parents for a pony, they suggested she get a cow instead, thinking it would be a less expensive (and temporary) addition to the family.<\/p>\n

So, at age 11, Dauten joined her local 4-H club and leased her first calf. At the end of the summer 4-H livestock show season, she was supposed to give the animal back to the farmer who owned it. But Dauten had fallen in love with \u2018her\u2019 calf, so she used the $400 she had earned busing tables at her mother\u2019s restaurant to buy the baby bovine.<\/p>\n

This fall, Dauten, who has a 3.85 GPA, will become a member of the class of \u201917 at the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. What got her there is a testament to her intellectual curiosity, her work ethic, and her love for animals.<\/p>\n

From her first 4-H calf, she branched out into other animals including dairy and beef cattle, goats, and pigs.<\/p>\n

Enrolling in Wamogo Regional High School\u2019s agricultural science program not only gave Dauten a chance to expand on her study of animals, it propelled her into the world of 4-H and Future Farmers of America, where she excelled at public speaking and development of leadership skills.<\/p>\n

Those experiences are what first brought her to the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, as she participated in 4-H competitions held on campus through the Department of Extension. \u201cI thought it was one of the most exciting things in the word to come here and interact with the college students, Dauten says. \u201cWhen it came time to fill out college applications, this was the only place I applied.\u201d<\/p>\n

After traveling to a number of other schools as part of the Block and Bridle [livestock] Club, she\u2019s convinced she made the right choice. \u201cUConn does a phenomenal job of giving students the type of experience they need to make career decisions in animal science,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Steve Zinn, head of the Department of Animal Science and Dauten\u2019s advisor, says one of the things that sets her apart is her work ethic: \u201cShe takes nothing for granted, she doesn\u2019t do just what\u2019s expected of her, she does more. And that\u2019s true in everything \u2013 whether it\u2019s her studies, or when she\u2019s working in the [UConn] barns, or mentoring other students. That\u2019s also one of the reasons she has been named the Eastern States Exposition Undergraduate Scholar for the state of Connecticut twice in four years. That\u2019s really unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her part, Dauten gives UConn a lot of the credit for helping her get where she wants to be career-wise. She says Zinn has been instrumental in her success, but she also speaks fondly of the late Randy Knight, former livestock unit manager, who had a knack for both challenging and mentoring the students working with UConn\u2019s farm animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Randy, I learned pretty quickly to ask questions if I didn\u2019t know something [about animal care], but then once he showed me how to do something, he trusted me to work on my own. He was that way with everyone and it\u2019s one of the things that gave me the confidence to go ahead with my dreams of becoming a veterinarian.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most important things I\u2019ve learned during my four years here is the importance of working with people, not against them. I\u2019m a very competitive person with myself, but what really hits home with me is how much better things work when people view each other as colleagues and peers, not as rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dauten has worked collaboratively in a variety of ways, including working with Zinn on First Year Experience (FYE) courses. In 2012, she was voted FYE Mentor of the Year. \u201cThat honor really meant a lot to me,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause I love interacting with students and I really like teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her future, during her hours on the 8:30 p.m. to midnight shift milking UConn\u2019s dairy cows, she\u2019s had a lot of time to plan. \u201cI always thought late-night milking was the best job to have,\u201d Dauten says with a smile,\u201d especially as a college student. Late night \u2026 doesn\u2019t conflict with classes \u2026 and it gave me a lot of time to think about what\u2019s ahead for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her immediate plans call for her to begin veterinary school in the fall. For the long-term, she would like to focus on the dairy industry, including preventative medicine for entire herds, perhaps working for the USDA or even teaching.<\/p>\n

As far as ever having that pony she originally begged her parents for, Dauten says, \u201cI think I\u2019ll stick to working with cows.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twice named Connecticut\u2019s Eastern States Exposition Undergraduate Scholar, Lisa Dauten ’13 (CANR) hopes to make a difference in the world of veterinary medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":74758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[56],"class_list":["post-74972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 10:01:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74972"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75427,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74972\/revisions\/75427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/74758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74972"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=74972"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=74972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}