Not exactly home on the range, but for Mississippi State Extension’s Lakan Guelker, home on the White Sand Experiment Station in the next best thing. She’s always loved livestock, specifically cattle. Even growing up, she knew she’d one day be a veterinarian. That was before attending Mississippi State University.

“During my time at Mississippi State, that’s where I kind of fell in love with research,” Guelker said. “I went on several Study Abroad Programs and that’s what kind of grew my love of research, is going to those conventions in those different countries and seeing what all research they had going on over there.  So I decided to try to get involved in research here in Mississippi.”

Cattle has been her passion since she started showing livestock at ten years old. Guelker can point to all the lessons she’s learned over the years through agriculture that’s shaped her life.

“That’s where I’ve gotten my work ethic from, is from livestock and, you know, being in that barn every single day determined to do better with my animals and to better myself within the industry,” she said.

Now she wants to make a difference for the future of the cattle industry.

“That’s kind of where my heart and soul is, is knowing the challenges the producers face, because my brother‑in‑law is a stocker operator in Collins and I have a lot of friends and family involved in the stocker operation,” Guelker said. “Stock operations are really big in south Mississippi and in Mississippi in general.  And I think targeting those type of producers, it would be more beneficial to them.”

Guelker’s goal is to use this award as a way to show students all that agriculture has to offer.

“I think it’s just important to show them the opportunities in agriculture just because there’s a lot of children that don’t realize all the possibilities and just all the jobs you could be involved in, in agriculture,” she said. “So I think it’s important to get them involved, give them some hands‑on experience and just, I’d like to show them around our station and get them some hands‑on experience just to show them, you know, they can have the same career path as me or, you know, they may find a love for research just like I did.”