NC State DVM Student Isla Farrow Wins Diversity Leadership Scholarship

March 28, 2024 Burgetta Eplin Wheeler 2-min. read

Isla Farrow, a second-year DVM student at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded a Merck Animal Health Diversity Leadership Scholarship.

The scholarship recognizes students with a strong record of contributing to enhancing diversity and inclusion at campuses that are members of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges.

“I am blessed and grateful to receive this scholarship,” Farrow says. “It is refreshing to know that there are people who believe in the work that I am doing and want to help support me in this journey. I am advocating and fighting for something bigger than myself. What drives me is seeing the positive impact that I have on the people around me.”

Farrow, a native of Greenville, North Carolina, recently participated in the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Legislative Fly-In to Washington, D.C., and was chosen by her fellow NC State contingent to brief Sen. Ted Budd’s office on the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act.

“A lot of people have fought and advocated for me to be in the spaces that I am, and they continue to do so,” Farrow says. “I must make sure that I do the same for the next generation to come.”

The $5,000 Merck Animal Health Diversity Leadership Scholarship recognizes students who have a record of contributing to inclusion through course projects, co-curricular activities, outreach, domestic and community engagement and research.

Isla Farrow shares with a child at Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh.

Among her many other activities, Farrow volunteered her time for a Black History Month event at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh in 2023, sharing her expertise and experiences with aspiring young veterinarians and their parents.

“It makes me emotional because at this age I never saw a Black veterinarian, and so for them to see us and especially at such a young age, I wish that I was them because it would have pushed me even earlier,” Farrow said at the time. “But I’m glad I’m able to be a motivation and inspiration to them. And it makes me feel like I know that I’m walking my purpose.”