HOST SCOTT SIMON: Tucked inside the University of Maryland's campus in College Park is a wind tunnel, a statue of alumnus Jim Henson, gabbing with Kermit the Frog and a farm, red barns and all. It's a remnant of the University of Maryland's ag school roots, and it is a place where students still go to learn. NPR's Ari Daniel brings us this audio postcard.
ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: Karly Bowe, the interim farm manager, welcomes me to the grounds, and we start walking over to the horse barn.
KARLY BOWE: So the campus farm is part of the animal science program. Something like 300 undergrads and about 30 grad students.
DANIEL: We step inside and head up to the hay loft.
Smells like dessert up here. What is that? Sweet.
BOWE: It's the hay. The sugars in the hay. This is what you want to smell. This is really good hay. This is what the horses want, too.
DANIEL: Yeah.
Bowe introduces me to a couple of them.
BOWE: This is Tex. He's really cool. So he's chestnut with bird spotting, those little white spots like snowflakes all over him. Hi, buddy. And this is Dawn, our only mare. So she's a really good teaching horse.
DANIEL: Dawn and the other horses here are part of today's intro lab course, Principles of Animal Science, taught by lecturer Kris Mayo.
KRIS MAYO: You are learning how to approach a horse, how to lead them out of their stall safely. You all will each get a hands-on opportunity to do it yourself.
(SOUNDBITE OF STABLE DOOR OPENING)
MAYO: OK. You want to go ahead here? You want to give it a try?
DANIEL: Hallie Hummer (ph) says it's her first time handling a horse.
HALLIE HUMMER: It's intimidating. I've never dealt with such big creatures before.
DANIEL: Then there's Malia Gibert (ph).
MALIA GIBERT: Two. I've ridden horses since I was 5 years old, and I've had the privilege of owning two. I've always been used to being around them.
(SOUNDBITE OF COW MOOING)
DANIEL: Next stop, cows.
ADELE TURZILLO: I'm a dairy cattle person. To me, cattle are beautiful (laughter).
DANIEL: Adele Turzillo chairs the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences.
TURZILLO: Many of our students are interested in going to veterinary school. And so this gives them an excellent preview of what it's like to work with animals.
DANIEL: One of those students...
SHEA MAXWELL: I'm a sheep person.
DANIEL: It's junior Shea Maxwell (ph).
MAXWELL: Come here, ladies. All you got to do is look at Nutmeg the right way. She just makes it so known that she loves her scratches.
DANIEL: You're scratching her right now.
MAXWELL: Oh, yeah. That's Pixie Stick, Calypso, Penelope and Ginger Snap.
DANIEL: Wow. You know your flock.
MAXWELL: Yes. Getting the hands-on experience I get with these animals - it's completely switched my trajectory.
DANIEL: From becoming a general cat and dog vet to training to be a livestock veterinarian.
MAXWELL: Anything you really eat, that's what I want to focus on.
DANIEL: All this hands-on work has also changed the perspective of senior Liliana Sonpar (ph).
LILIANA SONPAR: I actually had the experience of pulling a foal, helping to deliver a horse last spring, and that went in my vet school essay.
DANIEL: Pulled a foal out of the mare?
SONPAR: Correct.
DANIEL: My goodness. What feelings did you have when you did that?
SONPAR: It was the coolest thing I think I've ever done in my life. And my professor and my co-TA were right next to me, talking us through the entire thing. And that's the point of coming to school, right? You're coming here to get an education. Yes, you can learn your chemistry, but no one can teach you how to bottle-feed a lamb unless you actually do it.
DANIEL: And then Sonpar says she really must go. She has a quiz.
What's the quiz on?
SONPAR: Fertilization.
DANIEL: (Laughter).
Ari Daniel, NPR News, College Park, Maryland.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAYLON JENNINGS' "LANG'S THEME (INSTRUMENTAL)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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