print version

Student profile: Animal science major receives
Goldwater Scholarship

Kathleen Carey with her horse, a Paint named Kyle.

By Kim Markesich

Kathleen Carey, a senior majoring in animal science, has received the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, given for academic excellence in science, mathematics and engineering.

Carey received $7,500 toward undergraduate expenses. Carey credits much of her success to her parents, as well as to the owners of Pondview Farm in Bethlehem, Connecticut, where she boards her beloved horse, Kyle.
“They have been exceptional supporters while I have worked toward vet school, and I owe them everything,” Carey says.

Carey is pleasant, articulate and unassuming, yet her accomplishments are wide and varied: she is an honors student with a 3.98 GPA, a UConn New England Scholar, a UConn Babbidge Scholar and recipient of numerous awards, including the College's Henry & Ebba Hansen Leadership Award, Clinton S. Roberts Foundation Scholarship, Frances E. Osborne Kellogg Scholarship and an American Society of Animal Science Undergraduate Award, to name a few.

Carey is in her third year of a research project involving pinniped growth physiology. She spent a summer working at UConn analyzing samples and data collected at Mystic Aquarium in order to study the growth process in rehabilitated seals.

“Kathleen is a bright student with great potential,” says Steven Zinn, professor of animal science and Carey’s advisor. “She is very dedicated to her research project.”

This past summer, Carey worked as a canine handler at the Haute Dog Hotel in Woodbury. She has interned since 2009 as part of a shadowing program at New Milford Animal Hospital, Middle Quarter Animal Hospital in Woodbury, and Candlewood Equine.

Carey is spending the 2011 fall semester in Panama as part of the SIT Study Abroad program. “I wanted to study abroad in a program that provided home stay and total cultural immersion,” she notes.

Carey's activities during her first three years on campus have included a term as vice president of the UConn Ecoalition; founder and chair of the Honors Council Environmental Committee; member of the Husky Ambassador program, UConn Dressage Team and Honors Council Community Service Committee. She serves as a lector and Eucharistic minister for St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Teresa of Avila.

Carey plans to apply to veterinary school, and while she would enjoy any aspect of veterinary medicine, she could easily picture herself a large animal vet in a rural area of the country. “I would be interested in being a small or large animal vet,” Carey says. “But, in general, I’m not a city girl.”

Carey is thrilled to be at Storrs. “I have enjoyed being a student in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources so much,” Carey says. “I can’t imagine not going to UConn. I love being a part of it.”