Little kids are often inspired by TV shows. They end up saying that they want to be a superhero or an astronaut. But for senior Bella Shotts, Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins sparked her dream to care for animals.
“I asked my mom what job took care of animals, and she told me it was a veterinarian,” Shotts said.
It’s only natural that Bella joined FFA when she was a freshman. She first heard about the program when she was in sixth grade because her older sister raised a lamb.
“Whenever my sister went into FFA, I, loved her animal,” Shotts said.
Now in her fourth year of FFA, just like her sister, Shotts raises a lamb, plus chickens too.
Shotts wants to attend Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, and go into the “pre-vet” program. FFA has helped her in her career-decision process.
“[FFA] helps me prepare for these goals by teaching me leadership skills like public speaking and communication,” Shotts said. “It’s also helped me grow in my knowledge of animals, and I know more breeds than I came into KPark with.”
FFA broadly covers all aspects of possible careers in the agricultural field. This has helped Shotts discover that she specifically wants to be a large animal veterinarian. She wants to care for farm animals like pigs, sheep and goats.
Even though being FFA president takes up hours of class time each week, she knew that’s what she wanted to do. Ever since being a “green hand,” Shotts has always been very active in the FFA program.
“I decided [to run] because I knew that I had a little bit of leadership in me, and I wanted to help our chapter grow and just keep on pursuing, like, accomplishments in the FFA organization,” Shotts said.
She always makes sure that her officers have their scripts ready and are all prepared for their monthly meetings. She also makes sure everyone is ready for pen and animal selection, as well as mentoring and leading new members of FFA. Outside of school, she makes sure that her animals are fed and cared for. This is especially impressive considering how chickens are a lot of work, which is something that many people don’t know, and that selling chickens can be very hard.
While Shotts’s sister first got her involved in FFA, it’s her teacher Genevieve Ubnoskye who has had the biggest impact on her career goals.
“Ms. Ubi has shown me what it is to be a woman in FFA,” Shotts said. “She is definitely a mentor for me.”
Ubnoskye has loved teaching Shotts and looks forward to following her chase her dream career.
“It actually makes me feel humbled and blessed because that’s the one thing that you want as a teacher is for a student to feel that way about you because that means that you affected their life in a positive way,” Ubnoskey said. “That’s why I became an ag teacher to begin with. I know that she’s going to be successful at no matter what she does because she’s just such a hard worker and she tries so hard. So I know that in six to eight years, I will see her as a large animal vet and I know that she’ll be successful at doing that.”
