Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Foundation is proud to announce the selection of its 2023 large animal veterinary scholarship recipients.
TSCRF awarded four $5,000 scholarships to students nearing completion of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine. This year’s scholarship recipients include:
Victoria Burns – Raymondville, Texas
Victoria grew up on a working cattle ranch in Kenedy County in South Texas and has seen first-hand the importance of maintaining the health of production livestock. Upon graduation, she plans to become a rural mixed animal veterinarian with a focus on large animals.
Hailey Drerup – Midlothian, Texas
Hailey’s passion for becoming a veterinarian stemmed from her participation in the Texas FFA and showing livestock. She looks forward to moving to a rural area where she can get involved in a tight-knit community where she can work in a mixed animal practice serving the needs of Texas cattle producers.
Tucker Roberts – Brownwood, Texas
Tucker grew up in a ranching family as the fifth generation to continuously work the land and rear livestock in San Saba County and is the grandson and nephew of veterinarians who spent a combined 75 years in private rural practice. He has plans to return to a rural community and grow a rural mixed animal practice with a focus on beef cattle production medicine.
Colin Sanders – Temple, Texas
Colin was inspired early in life to become a veterinarian for food animals when he began showing livestock while in elementary school. Following graduation, he wants to pursue his passion in bovine medicine by working in a mixed rural veterinary practice and doing his part to ensure that America has a nutritious and safe product on their dinner table.
Joe Freeman of Austin, Texas, worked with the Foundation and was vital in establishing this scholarship. Since 2007, over $332,000 has been awarded through this scholarship to fourth year students of Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine who are preparing for careers in large animal medicine. The Foundation Scholarship Committee works with the chair of the Large Animal Practice at Texas A&M to award the scholarships.
The Foundation is grateful for the support from so many in the cattle raisers community who have contributed to the scholarship program over the last 19 years. The Foundation especially recognizes the generosity of the Emma Barnsley Foundation, Folsom Point Charities, H&H Livestock LC, Cox Cattle Company, James L. Powell, Julie and Scott Kleberg, and more than 30 individual donors who made gifts through last year’s annual scholarship appeal.
Since 2004, the Foundation is honored to have awarded almost $930,000 in scholarships to deserving students pursuing degrees in agriculture or agriculture-related programs. In 2023, the Foundation awarded 28 scholarships totaling $77,500, the largest amount ever awarded in a single year.
The TSCRF believes that providing students with the financial means to attend college and earn a degree in agricultural fields is central to its mission and valued deeply by the ranching community. The Foundation remains committed to assisting as many worthy students as possible and to encouraging the brightest and best students to dedicate their professional career to this industry that is so vital to American life.
A complete list and photos of all the Foundation’s 2023 TSCRF Scholarship recipients is available on the Museum and Foundation’s website at cattleraisersmuseum.org/current-scholarship-recipients-2023.