Southwest Tech Spotlight: Jenna Fletcher
Southwest Tech Spotlight: Jenna Fletcher
Jenna’s love for animals began with her childhood pets, Otto, Jasmine, and Sadie. Growing up, she showered her love on any small creature that crossed her path. When she wasn’t out finding small animals or playing with her friends, Jenna was behind the camera capturing nature’s beauty one shot at a time.
Although Jenna grew up in town, she fell in love with farm life while helping family friends on their farms. During her senior year of high school, Jenna stayed busy as editor of the yearbook, vice president of FFA, and, of course, working with calves.
“I was involved in FFA all through high school and loved the farm lifestyle. My perfect place is being outside surrounded by the beauty of nature and caring for animals.”
After graduating from Verona Area High School in 2013, Jenna decided to pursue her passion of working with animals. Her original plan was to take her generals at a local technical college and then transfer to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for Dairy Science and Ag Business. Upon graduation, she hoped to get a job managing dairy calves.
“It seemed like a great plan until I learned that I couldn’t take many of my generals there unless I was actually enrolled in a program. After the first semester, I knew I needed another plan.”
Jenna’s cousin, Krystal, was a Student Ambassador at Southwest Tech and convinced her to visit campus. With only one visit, she found that the staff was incredibly friendly and the instructors were knowledgeable and passionate.
“After learning about the Dairy Herd Management program, I was hooked! Here was the opportunity to reach my goal of becoming a dairy calf manager with only one year of classes. It was like they created the program just for me.”
All of Jenna’s credits she had already completed transferred into Southwest Tech giving her a head start. She also found a job working with calves as soon as she moved to the area.
“The transition and move went really well. It’s been easy to make friends here at Southwest Tech and the other students in my program already feel like family to me. I’m excited to see what next semester will hold.”
Jenna’s new plan is to be an advocate for women in the dairy industry and become a calf manager on a 2,000 head dairy farm while expanding her photography business, Wiscowsin Gal Photography.