Engineering Excellence to Veterinary Passion

Lindsay Wither’s dedication to her classes and studies allowed her to maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout college. Because of her academic dedication, her curiosity about the engineering world, and straight-up hard work, she won this year’s Carl and Sammie Locke Award for Outstanding Senior.

“The professors are awesome,” she said. “I got to know many of them well, mainly because I went to their office hours and formed relationships with them. Through these relationships they were willing to write me reference letters for my next steps in life.”

She was an active member in two clubs. One was ASHRAE, a club related to HVAC. She won a $10,000 Willis H. Carrier scholarship through them, which helped immensely to lessen her financial burden.

She also participated a great deal in the KU Chapter of the Illuminating Engineering Society, where she was president from 2022-2023.

Many Varied and Diverse Interests

Withers began her freshman year with an interest in aerospace and chemical engineering, trying to decide which of these disciplines she preferred. By the end of the year, she wasn’t sure that she wanted to continue with either of them.

Her friends changed all that.

She explained that when you're a freshman, you generally end up with a group of fellow students from other disciplines who are attending the same general education courses with you. “I had some friends who were in architectural engineering, and I found what they did in class interesting. All engineering disciplines have an introductory course that students take their freshman year. I looked at what they had in their coursework, and I liked it better than the introductory courses of aerospace and chemical engineering. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I switched to architectural engineering.”

Design in general interested her, but she soon discovered that she was most captivated by how a building was designed. Architecture was concerned about the building facade and the room layout, but architectural engineering was more about the systems within the building. What structure do you need to specify to hold the whole thing up? How do you fit the ductwork, lighting, and plumbing into the plan?

“It's basically like putting together a puzzle,” Withers said. “I always liked that type of problem solving, one that challenges your mind.” That aspect engaged her most of all.

To maintain her 4.0 GPA, she worked hard and spent a lot of time on the material. “I spent hours rewriting notes because writing helps my memory,” she said. “I'd also make quizlets of the material and go to a lot of office hours, because if I was unsure, it was just easiest to ask the professor for clarity.

“It was important to me to know the material for an active career, not just for a test.”

Difficulties During Lockdown

During her freshman year, she’d been active in a number of clubs and busy with other activities. But, when the pandemic hit and everybody was locked down, things quickly changed. During covid, it was difficult to be involved in clubs. Virtual meetings were nowhere near as fun as getting to meet in person.

In addition, when classes were canceled and everything went virtual, being back home meant she was working on her family’s farm and ranch. This did not leave much time for extracurricular involvement. She did, however, remain very involved with her studies and stayed in communication with the professors.

“After covid, things took a while to pick back up in comparison to my freshman year,” she said. Her club activities and attendance slowed until gradually, life came back to the “new normal.”

Once in-person classes resumed, Withers enjoyed the hands-on work her engineering courses provided. Many classes required a final design project, which provided a realistic design experience.

In lighting class, her project was to redesign the lighting in the architectural engineering (ARCE) senior lab. Withers took lighting measurements with handheld instruments, then loaded the data into a computer program to determine insufficiencies of the lighting system and find out which required upgrades she needed to meet code.

Her submitted project showed a new unique design and its supporting data. Her project was so well done that her professor asked to use it as a future class example, and he shared it with a local lighting manufacturer as a working design solution for the ARCE senior lab. Withers hopes to see her design’s implementation someday.

She also enjoyed the design experiences in her structural courses. The final project in her steel design course was to design the steel framework for Lippincott Hall, as it stands today on Jayhawk Boulevard. This project was done via hand calculations and on the computer. Through it, she gained a thorough understanding of how to design a steel structure based on loading conditions and the local codes.

Finally, Withers’ reinforced concrete course also included a design project. She especially enjoyed its very hands-on aspect. Her group designed their own concrete mix, built the formwork, poured the concrete, and later tested the product to find out if the mix design was accurate.

Enhanced Learning Experiences

Withers was in the KU Honors program. In order to graduate with honors, she took 18 credit hours of honors coursework and completed four Enhanced Learning Experiences (ELEs). These ELEs included Breadth of Learning, Leadership, Professional Development, and Public Service Enhancement.

Breadth of Learning was fulfilled by taking coursework outside of her major. Leadership was fulfilled by serving as a leader in a campus organization. Professional Development was fulfilled by completing a 40-hour internship; she completed that requirement three times over. Finally, Public Service Enhancement was fulfilled by accumulating at least 45 hours of public service.

Internships

Her internships covered three different areas: mechanical, electrical, and structural. After her sophomore year, she completed the mechanical internship at Henderson Engineers in Lenexa, KS. Here, she drafted HVAC and plumbing systems, sized ductwork, determined loads on HVAC equipment, and sized rooftop units (RTUs).

Her second internship was as an electrical intern at George Butler & Associates (GBA) in Lenexa. She drafted one-line diagrams and site plans, sized electrical wiring, reviewed electrical equipment submittals, and conducted code reviews.

Her most recent internship was as a structural intern at Burns & McDonnell in Kansas City. This work involved reviewing shop drawings, modeling and loading analysis of new construction, formulating calculation packages, and designing a steel structure.

Her varied experiences through the internships give her a comprehensive understanding of how building systems fit together. She also made lifelong connections along the way.

During her senior year, she added a brand-new track. Along with her extracurricular volunteer work, she was job shadowing at a local veterinary clinic.

How did she come to move from architectural engineering to the veterinary profession?

“I think part of it is that I like putting things together,” Withers said. “That’s what you might do in a surgery, such as putting a bone back together. I observed many different surgeries at the clinic, and I can’t help but see parallels to engineering of problem solving.” With this in the back of her mind, she pursued veterinary work because it was another passion of hers.

Ranching With Black Angus

Her family owns a cattle ranch south of Dodge City, “way out there. That's where I'm from.” They raise Angus cattle and crossbreed with Hereford bulls.

Naturally, living on a ranch meant helping with the animals. Withers enjoyed being involved in the animal health and nutrition of the herd. The heifers or cows would be AI’d (artificially inseminated) to produce early spring calves, and the veterinarian would come out about 60 days after breeding to “preg check” them. “I’d help move the cattle down the chute, then stand behind the vet and help wherever I could. It was a part of my childhood that I always liked.”

When a herd of cattle needed to be moved into a new pasture, she and her father would drive 4-wheelers to move them from the old pasture to the new one. While herding the animals in this way, she and her father would look for sick cattle. These would be taken back to the pens where they’d get rest and medication.

Withers assisted with vaccinations, which she was allowed to do under their BQA (Beef Quality Assurance) certified ranch manager. The BQA program and certifications added quality and safety measures to their calf production.

When a mama cow was having trouble giving birth, Withers would help pull the calf – that is, she would help the mama cow deliver it. If the calf was breech, or stuck in the birth canal, pulling a calf could be a long and arduous job, but a necessary one that could save the life of the mama cow and the calf.

Up Next: A Degree in Veterinary Medicine

That’s why Withers plans to follow her architectural engineering diploma with courses on the Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology track. As one can expect, her engineering curriculum did not satisfy all the veterinary school prerequisite coursework, so she’s working on the remaining prerequisites now.

“I enjoy engineering math and sciences, so that's why I was in architectural engineering,” she said. “But through my internships, which I also enjoyed, I compared them to experiences I've had in the animal veterinary world. Both provided different types of fulfillment, but I found myself drawn to the veterinary track. That's how I made my decision on where I want my path to go upon graduation.”

Withers will be staying around at KU to pick up her required biology and organic chemistry classes. “There are quite a few undergraduate courses that I need to complete, and by the end of next summer, I'll have them completed. I’ll also continue to gain veterinary experience at the same clinic where I have been shadowing. The hands-on experience will continue to increase my knowledge of animal health and nutrition for large and small animal care.

“All in all, I’m grateful for the opportunities and friendships that I’ve made at KU the last four years.”