For most students, April 8th was a regular Monday. But, for Mr. Lepore’s students, it was ‘Vet Day!’
Every so often, our campus’ Agriculture Area gets a visit from Dr. Katie Nenneker of Nenn Equine. Nenneker, Co-Founder and COO of this mobile veterinary team, and her team arrived at North Hollywood in the early afternoon to perform an orchiectomy–or in simpler terms; to neuter the baby donkeys.
At NoHo, our Ag Area provides students with a lot of opportunities they’d struggle to find at any other school, including getting to watch operations such as these. Not only do students get the option to take an animal science class with Lepore and take care of the farm animals we have on campus, but they also can take their interest a step further and become a member of Future Farmers of America (FFA).
Most students who are drawn to these options have dreams of finding a career involving animal science, biology, or veterinary medicine. If this is the path they choose, or if they just love animals, North Hollywood students can find themselves working alongside Lepore and other peers in the farm or garden. And on ‘Vet Day,’ they can watch, listen, and learn from Dr. Nenn and her team.
“Getting to work with the veterinarian has genuinely been an incredible experience. I’ve always wanted to work with animals since I was little, so the visits we get have only fueled my drive to pursue my passions,” said Stephanie Gutierrez, a twelfth grader and FFA’s Sentinel.
Once Nenneker arrived on Monday, students gathered around to watch the procedure. Dr. Nenn gave students a simple, step-by-step explanation of what was going to happen before she and her two other vet technicians began. They talked students through their process and provided a very rare opportunity to see veterinary care first hand.
Students listened and watched attentively, some also taking photos and videos. Senior Karen Torres was even able to participate in the procedure by administering a shot to one of the donkeys.
Torres wrote, “I mean, I was grateful that I got that experience because it’s something not everyone can experience everyday. It was fun and helped me learn a bit more about animals.”
Students like herself, who plan to continue to care for animals in the future, learn a lot from getting to see and even work with Dr. Nenn.
Katie Rodriguez, who is Vice President of FFA and has been a student of Lepore’s for the last two years, plans to study Agriculture Education and Animal Science at UC Davis after she graduates this year.
“[Dr. Nenn] does very well at giving me hands-on learning experiences, which makes me more excited for my future career as a traveling farm vet,” she said.
Dr. Nenn has taught students how to trim hooves and administer medications, like flea or pain medication as well as antibiotics.
“I have given shots to donkeys, they were anesthesia shots..so they could calm down so we could trim their hooves. That same day, I was able to trim the hooves of Moonique, our cow. I did it all by myself. The vet technician showed me how to position the leg so that I could have enough control over them while using my arms to trim the hooves while using the tools,” Rodriguez shared.
She added, “She’s the whole reason that we’re able to give our goats their flea medicine when she’s not there. She gives us a tutorial when she’s here and now me and the officers go one by one to give them flea medicine…Each one of the officers have given shots to multiple different animals. She also gives opportunities to other students who aren’t officers and are just in the class.”
Rodriguez emphasized the FFA team’s excitement about Dr. Nenn’s visits, saying, “We see her mostly every two months. If there’s an emergency, she comes…We know like two weeks prior to her coming, so once that date gets added to the calendar, it’s all we can talk about.”
“We follow her on Instagram and we just want to be her. Especially because her team is an all girl team just like us [FFA], it gives us the motivation that we need to keep on kicking because it’s a very hard job to have as girls in Ag but she shows us that we can do it without struggle,” she continued.
Rodriguez and other FFA officers even get the chance to have conversations with Dr. Nenn about the field.
“Dr. Nenn was really fundamental when it came to me choosing the school that I picked and my pathway to my career because she sat down with me and I asked her a bunch of questions about like if Davis is the school for me, what I should do after undergrad, what grad school I should go to, and what I should do after that,” Rodriguez said graciously.
“I’m overjoyed with emotion every time I see her. I’m able to ask her a billion questions about anything possible. There’s no dumb questions with her,” she finished.
At North Hollywood, where an agriculture program as large as ours is a rarity, it’s important for students to have support like they receive from both Dr. Nenn and Mr. Lepore.
“Other schools do have agriculture programs, but we are the biggest Ag area in all of LA so they don’t have these hands-on experiences with different animals like we do. They also don’t have as much support as we do, which is thanks to our wonderful principal Mr. Rosales,” Rodriguez concluded.
“Our Ag is so special because it’s something that isn’t prominent in LA, so as a student who really wanted to see if a vet was a career for her, this definitely was like a whole new world for me…Lepore gives us all the authority so that this is the FFA officers area, too, not just his…I wouldn’t be so sure about my future career if I didn’t have this program.”
