Class of 2008
Tonie Domino
Pre-Vet Intern Tests Farm Life
An aspiring veterinarian, Tonie Domino '08 turned a summer internship at a dairy farm into a project that earned first prize at the national conference of the Beta Beta Beta honor society in biology.
The project, a poster presenting her research on the bacteria in cow's milk, won the John C. Johnson Award in the Microbiology divisions at both the district and national levels.
A life-long equestrian, Tonie developed an interest in cows when she interned at the Heart's Delight dairy farm at the William H. Miner Agricultural Institute in upstate New York before her senior year.
Though she'd shadowed veterinarians before, Tonie's intensive work on the farm—especially learning to drive a tractor—took her outside her comfort zone.
"It definitely changed my perspective," she said. "We got to do everything. We helped milk the cows, helped deliver calves, and administered vaccinations and other treatments if cows were sick. We drove tractors and helped when they were getting the hay in, and we fed the calves each morning."
In addition to their farm duties, the interns were paired with calves that they trained and showed at the county fair, and Tonie's calf, Cricket, won a 6th place ribbon.
"She became really friendly and really fun to work with by the time the fair rolled around," Tonie said.
Tonie, who is currently applying to veterinary programs, feels the experience was an important step toward a career as a large-animal veterinarian.
"Veterinary school admissions want you to have a breadth of experience with animals," she said, "and the internship was a great new experience."
Cater Society of Junior Fellows Research
As a biology major hoping to attend veterinary school, I always thought I would be too busy to study abroad. Fortunately, I was able to take part in the Environmental Studies summer program in Ecuador with the help of a grant from the Cater Society of Junior Fellows. We visited the Galapagos, the rainforests, the high Andes, and everywhere in between. In each place we saw how the local people interacted with their environment, in positive and negative ways.
One interaction stood out for me: the exploitation of oil reserves beneath irreplaceable tropical rain forests. Many people depend on the oil industry, both for energy and for employment, so ending exploration is not a viable solution. I researched whether or not the relationship between the rainforests and the oil industry, currently harmful, could ever exist as a healthy one. It turns out that there are many ways to make oil exploration safer for the environment, and that many of these have financial benefits for the companies that employ them.
One solution is to use microbes to refine the crude oil; this eliminates a group of extremely toxic chemicals, and can often increase the speed at which impurities are removed from the oil. Damage is done not just by oil drilling, but by the infrastructure needed to run a drilling site. Roads fracture the forest into many parts, and many animal and bird species are restricted to smaller habitats.
Some companies have begun to build roads that leave the canopy of the forest intact: the canopy is the major highway for most species. Despite these positive solutions, the fact remains that use of petroleum products is damaging to the environment and climate. My conclusion was that government and industry should encourage oil companies to use alternative exploration and drilling methods, but that we, as members of a global civilization, should actively seek alternative energy sources.