Annual Open House
The NC State College of Veterinary Medicine looks forward to celebrating its annual Open House on Saturday,
March 6, 2027, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
(This event will take place, rain or shine.)
This extremely popular free event invites the community to explore our College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Hospital to learn more about how we are a driving force in veterinary research, training and medical care.
Learn more about the operations and facilities at our Veterinary Hospital and bring your budding veterinarians to check out what the classrooms and laboratories in a state-of-the-art college of veterinary medicine are like. Then stop by demonstrations to see how our veterinarians work with animals. Make sure to leave time to participate in one of our many events.
Open House Activities
Just some of the things to do!
- Get your favorite stuffed animal repaired in our Teddy Bear Clinic.
- Milk a cow!
- Learn how our veterinarians and students care for farm animals.
- Hear from a current veterinary student on what it’s really like to study at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
- See how our researchers are improving animal and human health.
- Engage with local animal organizations.
- Get your face painted.
- Grab a snack at a food truck.
What is the Teddy Bear Clinic?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Open House at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine?
Open House is an annual event hosted by the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine and Veterinary Hospital. The college and hospital open their doors to the public for tours, activities and learning experiences. It’s an excellent activity for all ages, from families looking for fun to students interested in learning about a career in veterinary medicine!
When is the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine’s 2027 Annual Open House?
The event will be Saturday, March 6, 2027, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and visitors are invited to drop in for as long as they can within that window. Open House will be held rain or shine.
Do I need tickets?
No, the event is free! Registration is not required, but visitors are highly encouraged to RSVP via the Facebook event.
Where can I park?
Parking is free and available a short walk from the college’s main building. Visitors entering campus will follow William Moore Drive until they reach the parking deck across from the college’s main entrance, marked by a long brick path. Parking attendants will be on-site to help direct guests to the deck.
Should the parking deck become full, additional parking will be available at Gate 9 at the NC State Fairgrounds. Shuttles will be available for those parking at Gate 9.
Limited accessible parking is available in select spots in the parking deck and in the college’s West Lot.
What kinds of activities should I expect?
Open House boasts a multitude of activities for all age groups. The event includes a self-guided tour with more than 20 stops where guests can get a taste of student life, hear more about admissions and clubs, learn from presentations and panels and participate in hands-on activities simulating several aspects of veterinary medicine. There will also be a multitude of educational demonstrations across campus!
Where do I find directions to NC State’s veterinary campus?
The NC State College of Veterinary Medicine is located off Hillsborough Street near the NC State Fairgrounds. For additional directions on getting to campus, click here.
How can visitors with mobility aids or strollers navigate campus?
The College of Veterinary Medicine’s campus is equipped with elevators that will be accessible to guests during Open House. Please note that the campus tour spans multiple floors and buildings, and guests with accessibility concerns are encouraged to contact a volunteer on-site day-of to address their needs.
Can I bring my personal pet to the event?
Personal pets are not permitted at Open House. Please leave your furry friends at home.
Will food be available on campus?
Food trucks will be parked on property for visitors to buy meals and snacks.
Additionally, our campus coffee shop, Creature Comforts Café, will be open. In addition to beverages, they offer a lineup of breakfast sandwiches, fresh bakery items, bottled beverages, grab n’ go sandwiches, wraps, pastas, salads and snacks.
Explore last year’s Open House
Follow Along on Social Media
Follow the fun on Facebook and Instagram. We will be posting additional information leading up to Open House. Share your experiences with us during the event using the #NCStateVetMed hashtag!
The world’s leading experts in feline health and dozens of veterinary residents from around the globe have gathered at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine for our second annual Cat Camp! The college created the event last year to help attract and train the next generation of feline clinician scientists, meeting a rising demand for more feline healthcare and research as cats surge in popularity in American households. #CatCamp2026
Maddy Yde is in her third year at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. She’s a strong believer in conservation and sustainability, and she wants to make her impact on the world through life-saving work at an aquarium or zoo. Here’s how she’s working toward that:
🔬 2x first-authored academic papers
🐢 Co-president of Turtle Rescue Team, plus leadership involvement in 5 other student organizations
♻️ Leading green initiatives among students on campus
Read about her research at the link in our bio.
Nothing to see here, just VetMed class of 2030 Howl-o-ween shenanigans.
#halloween
NC State College of Veterinary Medicine researchers are global leaders in pain research and have a demonstrated commitment to making life-changing information freely available through the Comparative Pain Research and Education Center.
We’re developing new educational resources about chronic pain, and we need your input. Take our survey, and let us know how you engage with information about your pet’s health and what you want to know.
We will help our pets together. Take the survey at the link in our bio.
https://go.ncsu.edu/2026-cprec-survey
Dr. Devorah Stowe, a clinical professor at NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded the 2026 Educator Award by the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology!
This is the fifth time Stowe has been awarded for her teaching excellence, a true testament to her outstanding relationships with her students and dedication to developing the next generation of veterinarians. In addition to her role as the curriculum’s thread leader for Animal Health and Disease, in which she teaches veterinary students clinical pathology, she also prioritizes the clinical pathology residency program, serving as a coordinator and mentor for the future clinical pathologists that come to NC State’s Veterinary Hospital to train.
She graduated from the NC State College of Agriculture and Life Science in 2005 before joining the College of Veterinary Medicine as a member of the class of 2009. She then completed a rotating small animal medicine, surgery and emergency internship at Carolina Veterinary Specialists followed by a residency in clinical pathology at NC State.
Read more at the link in our bio.
http://ncst.at/FsKR51007Xh
🎃 NC State College of Veterinary Medicine students are getting into the fall spirit, and hosted a community-focused Howl-O-Ween 5K Fun Run and Walk! The Student American Veterinary Medical Association showcased their leadership skills and put on the dog-friendly, costumed fun run to support local adoption efforts — just one way our future veterinarians are leading the pack and giving back to North Carolina.
Planning for our new Large Animal Veterinary Center is front and center at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, and we are looking forward to offering our clients access to a purpose-built facility designed for how advanced veterinary medicine is practiced today — and what it will demand in the decades ahead.
The new and renovated facility will offer:
• A dedicated emergency and colic wing where horses in crisis can be admitted, stabilized and moved directly to surgery within the same connected space.
• An expanded ruminant and farm animal facility that accommodates more patients and allows for more space to maneuver cattle.
• A sports medicine pavilion with a covered arena, specialized surfaces for lameness evaluation and state-of-the-art imaging technology — including MRI, a standing CT scanner, CT myelography capabilities and nuclear scintigraphy — that continues NC State’s reputation as one of the go-to premier medical facilities for performance horse owners on the East Coast.
• Three operating rooms that will allow emergency and elective procedures to proceed simultaneously — something the current facility cannot accommodate.
• A new isolation pavilion that will expand our capacity to contain infectious disease outbreaks, protecting every patient in the hospital and every large animal in the surrounding community.
• Natural light in every stall. Flooring designed to reduce stress and prevent injury.
• Spaces built for clear communication between clinical teams. A client entry designed to be welcoming and easy to navigate, especially in the middle of the night — because emergencies don’t wait for daylight.
The expanded and updated facility also means more students in the space, more cases observed, more skills developed — and more specialists entering a field that desperately needs them.
Stay tuned!
“People reach out to us because they know that if they have a question, we can take it from the beginning to the end.”
What Dr. Xinxia Peng and his lab bring to a plethora of potentially life-changing projects is a rarity: a truly interdisciplinary team with the expertise to both conduct wet-lab experiments with various biological samples and to provide the dry-lab bioinformatics computations on genetic codes within those samples that lead to biological discoveries.
A professor of infectious diseases at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, Peng is an expert on genomics and bioinformatics and has developed research partnerships with scientists across the state and country. Most recently, he’s received two NIH grants, one partnering with Duke researching organ transplants and the other with an NC State scientist studying uterine function.
At its most basic, bioinformatics is a field that combines computer science, mathematics and biology to analyze and interpret complex biological data like DNA and protein sequences.
Peng’s investigations include trying to understand the role genetics play in how an individual patient responds to immunity-related therapeutics.
“At an educational institution, setting up this interdisciplinary research, both in terms of actual research and the group members, so that it makes us a place that people will come and say, ‘Hey, we want to collaborate,’” he said, “to me is really very satisfying.”
Learn more at the link in our bio.
https://go.ncsu.edu/peng
NC State College of Veterinary Medicine hit the road to provide veterinary support at Sampson Showdown — a livestock show hosted by Sampson County 4-H and N.C. Cooperative Extension.
N.C. Cooperative Extension is a joint effort among NC State, N.C. A&T, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and local governments across the state. At Sampson Showdown, 4-H participants of all ages competed with a variety of livestock animals. Drs. Tomas Gonzalez, Danielle Mzyk and Michael Center made sure the animals were healthy and disease-free before they entered the facility.
NC State has extension offices in all 100 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee, serving as a resource for every corner of the state, both urban and rural, providing:
🔬Research-backed information to industry
🍎 Health and nutrition outreach programs to communities
🍀 4-H youth development for kids and teens
