At NC State this summer, more veterinary students than ever participated in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Scholars Program (VSP), a crucial opportunity for students to push beyond the classroom and clinic walls and dive into the research that is shaping the future of veterinary and human medicine.

An international program, VSP supports participating universities as they pair veterinary students with faculty mentors to tackle their own projects in real research settings. NC State routinely has the largest number of participants in the United States, and this year 71 veterinary students spent 10 weeks immersed in research — a 36% increase over last year.

The students, who receive a stipend to support them through the program, will present their projects in August at the annual Veterinary Scholars Symposium, hosted this year by NC State. 

Grace Detwiler, a rising second-year student, spent three years as a veterinary assistant with the NC Mobile Veterinary Service based in Enfield, North Carolina, before she entered veterinary school. As a scholars program participant this summer, she researched bovine mastitis — inflammation of the udder — and one of its primary causes, a bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus, because mastitis costs the American dairy industry $2 billion each year.

“If you’ve never done research, I 100% think everyone should do it at least once, and this is a great opportunity,” Detwiler said. “I really appreciated it and took away so much from this experience. Ten out of ten from me.”

She worked on her project under the mentorship of Dr. Josh Fletcher, an assistant professor of population health and pathobiology, who signed up for VSP for the first time this year. He was excited to help Detwiler and another student with bovine projects with the goal of exposing them to the day-to-day ins and outs of bench science.

“As a clinician, you get a lot of information in veterinary school, and you apply that information to treat patients,” Fletcher said. “That information doesn’t come out of nowhere. … I wanted them to see what it’s like to make the discoveries and not just read about them. Our summer students are closing knowledge gaps in real time”

Detwiler said that, although she doesn’t plan to work in laboratory research professionally, she developed practical laboratory skills, such as aseptic technique, that she will carry with her into her career as a bovine practitioner.

From Hypothesis to Publication

Other VSP participants continue digging into their research when the summer ends and end up as co-authors on published papers.

Lanie Phillips, a rising fourth-year student, took that scientific success a step further. She was lead author on a paper published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research in June detailing work she did as a VSP scholar in 2024. 

That summer, Phillips worked with her mentor, Dr. Lisa Gamsjäger, to investigate how storage times affect the quality of donated goat blood. Goats often suffer from anemia, and donor blood can be difficult to come by.

“What we found was that the blood really shouldn’t be stored any longer than two weeks,” Phillips said. “But, honestly, it’s preferable to use a live donor patient for blood transfusions in goats.”

Phillips continued working with Gamsjäger to get the study results published. 

“I was really fortunate to have Dr. Gamsjäger in my corner because she really pushed me to work hard and write this paper,” Phillips said. “It was an incredible opportunity to be able to do that because she entrusted me with this important responsibility of communicating our work.”

Dr. Ronald Li, associate professor of emergency and critical care and co-director of NC State’s Veterinary Scholars Program, said that publishing the research isn’t a required part of the program but that the path exists for those eager to put in the extra effort.

“I certainly have mentored students who took a project from start to finish and were able to be included as a lead or major contributing author,” Li said. “They are really involved in the entire scientific process, from hypothesis to publication. Through the process they get the full picture of what it’s like to be a veterinary scientist and drive the innovation that fuels the future of veterinary medicine.”

Creating Well-Rounded Students

Fabiola Ruiz Rosario is a rising fourth-year veterinary student and former VSP participant who co-authored a paper published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research in February.

She spent two summers — 2024 and 2025 — in the lab of Dr. Lauren Schnabel, professor of equine orthopedic surgery, studying how Alpha2EQ helps horses with cultured synovial fibroblasts, or connective tissue cells in joints. The treatment is already used to reduce inflammation and deter arthritis, but her project’s goal was to explain exactly why it worked. 

The team, which included Dr. Brenna R. Pugliese, a post-doctoral researcher in Schnabel’s lab, found that Alpha2EQ reduces inflammation by modulating the expression of certain proteins when the body is experiencing an immune response.

“It’s something that I feel like I’m very lucky to be part of,” Rosario said. “It made me a very well-rounded student and candidate for internships and residencies, which are my next career goals.”

According to Li, that well-roundedness is exactly what the program sets out to achieve, balancing the core clinical training of the academic curriculum with experience and research knowledge that aren’t found in textbooks, making these summer research opportunities invaluable.

“It’s really important as a clinician,” Li said. “Even for those students who later on might not pursue a career in research, the skills they’re gaining in these 10 weeks will help them become better veterinarians. A full understanding of the scientific process can really shape the way a clinician critically evaluates new tests and treatments.”