PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Dec. 4, 2023) – It was Ms. Beverly, who fostered cats and took care of strays in the neighborhood, who fostered a love of animals in Prairie View A&M University senior Joshua Evans.
Evans, who graduates from PVAMU this Saturday, has come a long way: from helping his elderly neighbor to landing his first job as a kennel assistant and then working up the ranks as a veterinary assistant, a veterinary assistant lead, and finally a vet tech.
Now, he is on the pre-veterinary medicine track, slated to earn his bachelor’s in agriculture with a concentration in food and animal science and a minor in chemistry.
He and Zeus, his 4-year-old German Shepherd, eagerly await his acceptance into veterinary school.
The 22-year-old transferred to PVAMU from Loyola University New Orleans in 2020 to pursue his dream of becoming a food animal veterinarian: those who care for farm animals raised for food sources (like cows and pigs).
“I want to be able to take care of the animals that go into our food chain,” Evans said. “This is a way that I can incorporate both meat/food science and veterinary medicine.”
He adds both disciplines play a key role in advancing public knowledge of “what we eat and how it gets from farm-to-table,” a vital issue amid increasingly alarming effects of climate change on agriculture, livestock, and, ultimately, global food supply.
But Evans doesn’t come from a family of science but of music: Growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, he spent his childhood around bands, which “runs in his family.” He thought he wanted to be a music score composer…until he met Ms. Beverly.
Now, Evans aims to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to guide policies to improve food animal care. He wants to stop foodborne outbreaks like salmonella and E. coli at the source – by ensuring animals are healthy enough to be processed at facilities like the newly opened PVAMU Meat Science Center – as well as research preventive measures.
Working at the center has opened up opportunities for Evans, who helped create the PVAMU Meat and Food Science Club after attending various industry conferences and networking events put on by the American Meat Science Association. He said PVAMU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Associate Professors Dr. Lea Ann Kinman and Dr. Tamra Tolen have been instrumental to his inspiration and student activism.
Meat Science Center Director Kinman calls Evans “a changemaker” for all his involvement in various campus opportunities, including being a student leader during the center’s Meat Master Training Program and researching at the University’s International Goat Research Center. Evans is a pioneer in spreading the word about the value of meat science. He has helped and will help put “Prairie View on the map,” as Kinman likes to say.
“I always find myself speaking highly of the opportunities PVAMU has to offer, especially as an Ag student,” Evans said. “It has always been my goal to get more students out on the farm, whether for volunteer hours, educational purposes, or jobs.”
Most people enjoying their juicy T-bone steak at dinner don’t ponder where the slab of meat came from. Still, Evans considers all the intricate parts and processes involved in feeding people: from how the meat was harvested and processed, stored and kept fresh, and packaged adequately for freshness to the different retail cuts of meat and even the science behind flavoring.
He says it is important to know where your food comes from because “this is how you feed the world.”
Click here to view more of this semester’s notable graduates.
By Christine Won
-PVAMU-