When I Grow Up
Cincinnati, Ohio native Anne Lamb ‘11 is well on her way to obtaining her dream job: To Become a veterinarian. Anne has always had a love for science and animals, so majoring in biology was an easy decision when it came to choosing a major.
“I knew I wanted to work with animals, and I knew biology would be the best choice to gain the knowledge I needed to pursue an animal-related career,” Anne says.
She didn’t have a set plan when it came to choosing her career. As a freshman, Anne intended to go to graduate school for zoology, but that quickly changed.
“The more I researched that path, the more I came to realize that I wanted to do something more hands on,” she says. “I came across veterinary medicine as a sophomore and have pursued it since.”
Anne will be starting at Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in the fall.
“I will miss Saint Mary's next year, but I am also ready to move on to the next stage of my life. Saint Mary's has prepared me for the changes I will be experiencing in the coming months making the move from undergraduate studies to veterinary school.”
Anne recently participated in the Celebrating the Education of Women in Science event on campus in March, talking to alumnae, prospective students, and people in the community about her senior comprehensive project on parakeets. She studied the white blood cells in 18 parakeets and determined whether their stress levels increased more before mate pairing or during the process of mate pairing.
“Doing a senior comprehensive in biology provided me with confidence in my work,” Anne says. “Besides being guided by my advisor, the work I did on my comp was completely my own. I put the time in to do my research, analyze my results, and read similar experiments to compare to my own.”
She worked with birds because she wanted to relate her comp to something that was relevant to her career aspirations. She also thought that subject was one that any animal owner could relate to, especially bird owners.
Anne was excited to present her senior comp during the Celebrating the Education of Women in Science event. She was pleasantly surprised at the end of the day when President Carol Ann Mooney announced that the College would be receiving a generous gift of $10 million to renovate Science Hall. Philanthropists MaryAnn and Clayton Mathile, parents of Saint Mary’s alumna Jennifer Mathile Prikkel ’95, donated $9 million dollars to Saint Mary’s for the renovation of the building, which houses the Departments of Biology and Chemistry/Physics. In addition, Prikkel, a member of Saint Mary's College Board of Trustees, donated $1 million to the project for a combined gift of $10 million.
“It is very important for science students to learn using the most up-to-date technology, and I cannot wait for future students to use the new facilities. It was such a generous gift, and I cannot thank the Mathile and Prikkel families enough for their donation.”
When asked if Anne had any advice for students considering a major in science, she said, “If you enjoy science, then look into being a science major. There are so many fields that you can go into.”
-Krystina Harcourt ‘11