DANBURY, CONN. — Every morning at 4:30 a.m. — hours before heading to class at Western Connecticut State University — Velvet Ritch is up tending to the horses at a Danbury farm.

Growing up on a Louisiana farm, the 23-year-old Bethel resident knew at an early age that she wanted to be around animals all her life. Now a senior at WestConn, Ritch is majoring in biology as a stepping stone to becoming a veterinarian.

“I have wanted to be a vet since I was four years old. I never questioned it. We were always outside riding horses and playing with the animals,” said Ritch. The farm had horses, cows, chickens and goats. “The animals were our toys.”

After Ritch moved to Connecticut as a teenager to live with her father, the farm that belonged to her riding instructor mother and stepfather, was destroyed after Hurricane Rita ripped through the area in 2005. Although they managed to start up a smaller farm further north, the farm she remembered was gone forever. But Ritch never lost her love of animals and has continued to volunteer for a local horse veterinarian and care for horses.

Ritch decided to start preparing for her career at WestConn — not only because of its affordability and proximity to her Bethel home, but because of the strong science program. Although she looked at other colleges in the Northeast, Ritch said she had made up her mind early on that WestConn would be the ideal school to study biology.

“The new science building was really what attracted me,” Ritch said. “Vet schools are competitive and I knew I’d need a solid knowledge of biology to succeed. WestConn has an impressive science program and the addition of the science building had a huge impact on my decision to study here.”

Ritch, who expects to earn her bachelor of science degree in May, is currently looking at post-graduate veterinarian programs at state universities in Iowa, Louisiana and Mississippi and several in California.

Confident about her future, Ritch said WestConn’s science program, which focuses on research vital to absorbing the kind of information she’ll need as a vet student, fulfills all of the requirements for veterinarian school, including microbiology and animal biology.

“That’s what I like about WestConn — it covers all the bases.”

For more information, contact the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.