Motivated, ambitious, goal-oriented, and driven to make a difference are a few of the ways to describe graduate student Cora Carter. From a small town in Southern Indiana, Cora majored in pre-veterinary medicine at Purdue University as a fourth generation Boilermaker. Once admitted into the prestigious College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue, Cora had a decision to make. Continue on in the Vet Scholars program, or follow her calling to help feed the world?
Through church mission trips, Cora had traveled to Honduras where she saw poverty in a real way. These trips are what helped to plant the seed of spending her life helping to feed others. Changing her concentration from pre-vet to animal production, Cora added a second major in international agronomy. This helped her build a knowledge base in crops, soils, forages, animal nutrition, and international economics. Knowing that in order to reach her goals she would need research experience and a higher-level degree, Cora found the perfect fit at Ohio State with the international development extension graduate degree. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in agricultural extension and education with a focus on international development from Ohio State’s Department of Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership.
The research that Cora is conducting is focused on livestock production in the inner city of developing countries- something that hasn’t been researched to a great extent. She is developing a project in collaboration with the International Research Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Managua, Nicaragua. The project will survey livestock producers within the city limits of Managua, determining their needs for safety education with regards to raising livestock. With hopes of determining the safety education levels of farmers, especially regarding waste management and zoonotic diseases, Cora will then work with animal scientists, veterinarians, and OSU extension personnel to develop workshops and materials for use in Nicaragua.
She wishes to create a self sustaining program in Nicaragua by training local Nicaraguan livestock producers to teach the workshops to their peers, which would in turn help guide further education programs. Excited about her future and where her research at Ohio State will take her, Cora says,
“I look forward to being a part of the solution to world hunger in my lifetime and this is where it begins.”
To learn more about graduate opportunities within ACEL, contact Dr. Scott Scheer by emailing scheer.9@osu.edu or visit room 203 in Agricultural Administration.