08/20/2026
Our ASSURE students have been hard at work this summer! 🐺🔬
Through the Animal Science Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (ASSURE) program, students spent 12 weeks gaining hands-on experience in animal science research alongside faculty and graduate student mentors.
But their summer wasn't just about research! Throughout the program, students also participated in professional development, leadership and communication training, career exploration, industry networking and more — all while learning about the many opportunities available in animal science and food animal agriculture.
To wrap up their summer experience, each student created a research poster and presented their work at the NC State Summer Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium, sharing the research they spent the summer working on. 🎓📊
We are so proud of everything our ASSURE students accomplished this summer and grateful to the faculty, graduate students and industry partners who helped mentor and support them along the way!
ASSURE Recap:
- 🥜🐷 Priya, Erik, & Jeimy worked on a nursery pig research trial at the Swine Education Unit evaluating the use of different peanut types in swine diets. Each student worked with a different peanut variety — Priya with Spanish, Erik with Virginia, and Jeimy with Runner peanuts. They helped prepare the peanuts at the Feed Mill and assisted with experiment management and data collection to evaluate pig growth performance compared with a control diet.
- 🐂🐑 Bella & Lauren worked with the collaborative Poole/Pickworth/Weaver lab throughout the summer. Under the direction of Dr. Poole, Bella studied the effects of endophyte-infected tall fescue on heat-stressed beef heifers. Under the direction of Dr. Weaver, Lauren analyzed feed efficiency variability in Katahdin sheep. Lauren also assisted with the lab’s ongoing beef cattle research, gaining hands-on experience with data collection and experiment management.
- 🔬 Caitlyn worked with Dr. Felipe Silva’s lab studying heat stress in beef cattle. At the Cherry Research Station, she helped monitor respiration rates and panting scores, check sensors, process uterine samples, search for Day 17 embryos, and cryopreserve samples for future analysis.
- 🐄🩺 Sarah & Justina worked with the Ward lab on projects focused on dairy cattle health. Their research explored antibiotic use for mastitis and the use of imaging to detect illness in calves. Both wrapped up the summer by presenting their research posters!
- 🐷🧬 Jennifer & Megan worked with Dr. Jicai Jiang’s lab, gaining experience in swine genetics and genomics. Their work involved using genomic data, statistical analysis, and programming to better understand economically important production traits in pigs. Through their projects, they gained hands-on experience applying statistical genetics and bioinformatics to real-world animal science research.
📸 Check out what our ASSURE students have been working on in the photos below!
