EXPLORE
ANIMAL HOUSE The N.C. State College of Veterinary Medicine opens its doors to showcase its facilities by AYN-MONIQUE KLAHRE photography by S.P. MURRAY
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hings to do: Milk a cow, scan a microchip, stitch up a wounded stuffed animal. It’s a packed agenda at the annual open house at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), a day-long affair that attracts more than 10,000 people in a single day to explore the anchor building on the 250-acre Centennial Biomedical Campus. “People are curious about what’s going on,” says Jordan Bartel, communications strategist for the CVM. “They see the
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cows outside, but no one knows what happens inside—with this event, you get full access.” The annual event started in 1983, just weeks after the main facility was dedicated, and it’s almost entirely student-led. “We get people from all over Raleigh and North Carolina for this,” says Khushboo Dass, a third-year veterinary student who’s the senior chair of the event this year. “There’s really something for everyone.” The self-lead tour covers about 30 different areas in the 110,000-square-foot Veterinary Hospital, representing
over 15 different specialty services and medical programs. “It’s a special chance to get here when all the doors are open,” says Dass. Inside, guests can tour the rooms, speak with doctors and veterinary students about equipment and treatments, and even watch live surgeries being performed on animals, an event that has gotten so popular that it’s live-streamed into lecture halls. (And don’t worry: for the squeamish, these displays are clearly marked—and so is the reptile room.) In the Simulation Laboratory (“Sim
