Karissa Frealy, a second-year student at Oklahoma State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, was awarded the inaugural David A. Schoneweis scholarship during the American Association of Swine Veterinarians Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
The children of the late Dr. David Schoneweis established a scholarship in his memory to benefit swine-interested students from Kansas State University (KSU) and Oklahoma State University (OSU). The $1,000 scholarship is awarded to a student or students from KSU or OSU who participate in the student oral or poster presentations during the meeting, based upon a selection rubric prepared with the oversight and approval of the Schoneweis family.
Frealy presented her research poster, "Evaluating the use of processing fluids for sow herd monitoring of porcine circovirus type 2," during the Veterinary Student Poster Session March 8 and 9. She was one of 39 students presenting a poster.
Dr Schoneweis was born in Clay Center, Kansas and earned his doctor of veterinary medicine from Kansas State University in 1956. He served two years in the Army Veterinary Corps before teaching clinical sciences at Oklahoma State University for six years. After two years in private practice in Lawrence, Kansas, he joined the KSU College of Veterinary Medicine faculty in 1966, where he received his master’s degree in surgery and medicine in 1971 and taught food animal medicine for 30 years. Dr Schoneweis was a charter member of the American Association of Swine Practitioners (AASP) and served on the association’s Board of Directors in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1997, he received the AASP Meritorious Service Award for his lifetime of support for the association and in recognition of his work with students as a professor of food animal medicine at KSU and OSU.
Thankful for the scholarship, Frealy said, "I am so very excited and honored to be receiving the first David A. Schoneweis Scholarship. I am deeply appreciative to the family of Dr Schoneweis for generously providing this award, and I feel privileged to receive it. To the family of Dr Schoneweis, thank you."