Growing up in the Washington D.C. metro area, Harrison Furlow (animal science) had an innate love of animals, but no exposure to large-scale agriculture. He began to get a taste of that scale when he joined 4-H where local farmers and leaders taught him about animal husbandry and the industry. Harrison was officially hooked and determined to study animal science.
A visit to Iowa State for Odyssey of the Mind (a creative problem-solving activity) gave Harrison a look at agriculture on a scale he had only dreamed of but never seen. In a short time, Iowa State had made such an impression that Harrison gathered a mason jar of rich, black, Iowa soil to commemorate the trip. Thanks to participation in clubs like Block and Bridle and networking with faculty and fellow students, Harrison has been able to travel across the state and country learning about livestock production in its many forms, seeing the types of livestock operations, particularly swine, that were only in his mind growing up.
In the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, students not only read about concepts in a textbook, they experience them in labs associated with specific classes, industry tours with clubs, and student work opportunities available on farms, campus and in the lab.