{"id":57002,"date":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/commencement-2015-uri-senior-examining-signs-as-she-explores-career-choices\/"},"modified":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T00:00:00","slug":"commencement-2015-uri-senior-examining-signs-as-she-explores-career-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/04\/commencement-2015-uri-senior-examining-signs-as-she-explores-career-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement 2015: 溏心vlog免费B站 senior examining signs as she explores career choices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tBurlington, Conn., resident considering vet school, sign language career<\/b><\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 21, 2015 \u2013 Courtney Walker has known since she was 6 that she wanted to become a veterinarian. The Burlington, Conn., resident has had a long fascination with animals and a strong desire to save and protect those injured or in ill health.<\/p>\n


\n\tBut it wasn\u2019t until she enrolled at the 溏心vlog免费B站 that she expanded her career horizons from becoming a traditional dog-and-cat vet to perhaps working with farm animals or even marine species. The eye-opening moments began at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Peckham Farm, where she cared for sheep, goats and pigs, among other species.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cGetting to watch a 1,200-pound sow give birth to 12 piglets, one right after another, was probably one of the most fascinating things I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Walker, an animal science and technology major who will graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 May 17. \u201cAnd last year I was put on lamb watch and got a call one night to go down and help the sheep give birth. That was pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tA class at Mystic Aquarium opened her eyes to even more possibilities. \u201cI always loved swimming and I just about lived in the water as a kid,\u201d she said, \u201cso to have this whole aquatic world opened up to me was amazing. I especially loved working with the beluga whales.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBut Walker\u2019s experience at 溏心vlog免费B站 wasn\u2019t confined to studying animals. She\u2019s a member of three honor societies and a member of WOWW \u2013 We\u2019re Offering Women Wisdom \u2013 a campus group that serves as mentors for freshman women and organizes volunteer and philanthropy projects. And she has been a leader in the annual campus performance of The Vagina Monologues, getting her favorite role her junior year and becoming director of the show as a senior.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s something I never thought I would ever do. I couldn\u2019t have even said that word in high school,\u201d Walker said. \u201cBut when I saw the show as a freshman, I fell in love with it. It gave me the confidence to be who I really am. I\u2019m a totally different girl now.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tPerhaps her greatest role at 溏心vlog免费B站 was as the founder and president of the University\u2019s American Sign Language Club. \u201cI started learning sign language in high school, and I\u2019ve been fluent for six years,\u201d she said. \u201cI talk with my hands a lot anyway, so I figured why not literally talk with my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWalker teaches sign language to whoever is interested in learning, and she serves as a translator for anyone on campus who is deaf. She is even working with the University administration to add sign language classes to the curriculum. Her growing interest in sign language is even making her question her career path.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be a vet, but as soon as I learned sign language, I thought that was another career I could pursue,\u201d she said. \u201cI might even want to be a full-time teacher and spread my joy and enthusiasm for sign language to anyone and everyone I can. It\u2019s very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAs Walker prepares for graduation and waits to hear about veterinary school admissions, she is wishing her undergraduate days weren\u2019t coming to an end so soon.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cPeople told me that college was going to be the best time of my life, but I just wanted to grow up and become an adult,\u201d she said. \u201cNow that I\u2019m a senior, I\u2019m saying the same thing. You don\u2019t realize how fast it goes by.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPhoto by Nora Lewis<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burlington, Conn., resident considering vet school, sign language career KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 21, 2015 \u2013 Courtney Walker has known since she was 6 that she wanted to become a veterinarian. The Burlington, Conn., resident has had a long fascination with animals and a strong desire to save and protect those injured or in ill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}