My name is Mariana Fontana Westphalen, I am on the second semester of a M.S. program in Animal Science, being advised by Dr. Tara. L Felix and focusing my studies on beef cattle nutrition. I am original from Brazil, my family has some agricultural background, my father is a farmer and so was my grandfather, and this might sound somewhat cliché but all that had some influence on me when choosing a career.
So, I decided to study agronomy. Last year I obtained my bachelor’s degree in Agronomic Engineering at University of São Paulo and came straight to State college in pursue of a M.S. degree. My interest in cattle begun during my second year of college on an internship with ruminant nutrition, where I had the opportunity to work both with sheep and cattle.
I met my current advisor in a beef and dairy conference in Brazil in 2015, I went to speak to her and ended up in an internship under her supervision in Illinois, she was a professor there back then. After my internship I went back to Brazil, finished my undergrad and applied for a M.S. here.
I look forward to finishing my studies. In the short term I would like to work with extension, the academic world could be more appealing to me if I didn’t feel awkward teaching in a classroom environment, but I hope this class will help perhaps changing that, and in a longer term I see the possibility of going back home to work with my family.
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