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Meet Hilary Vanater
by Margaret Haring, posted Sept. 19, 2011 |
Hilary Vanater is a freshman science and agricultural journalism major from Mt. Vernon, Mo., which is directly between Springfield and Joplin on U.S. Highway 174. She was raised on a farm and enjoys agriculture.
Vanater was born in Florida and lived there for a good part of her childhood. She moved to Missouri when she was in fifth grade. Vanater lives on a farm with her parents and her sister, who is fourteen months younger. Vanater enjoys riding horses and working on her farm, where she raises cattle and chickens. She also enjoys bottle feeding calves from her farm. Her favorite cow is Baby, who only has three hooves and was raised on a bottle. Since he was bottle fed in his early life, he is extremely tame and Vanater enjoys playing with him.
While growing up, she had a job at Wendy’s and also worked on her family farm. Vanater participated in cheerleading, dance and FFA in high school. She particularly loved FFA. She was the reporter and treasurer for her area chapter.
“Through FFA I gained a passion for agriculture,” Vanater said. “I believe in the benefits of agriculture in today’s society, and I want to share the benefits with others.”
Vanater first decided to pursue her major during a visit to MU. She talked with a professor about it and quickly became interested. She looks forward to gaining writing experience through Corner Post and plans to be involved in Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow. In addition, Vanater plans to minor in Spanish. She has had a good experience at MU so far.
“I love Mizzou,” Vanater said. “I didn’t apply to any other schools. It was my first and only choice!”
After college, she plans to go to other countries and study their form of agriculture.
“I would like to share my agricultural experiences in other countries through my writing,” Vanater said.
