Exhibitors put in the hours prior to competition

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

Erica Hawks, 18, arrived at the school's animal barn two hours before class time to care for, and work with, her Shorthorn steer to ready him for competition. -- Staff photo by Carolyn Rost

March 3, 2005 - In about three months, Erica Hawks, 18, of San Antonio will graduate from James Madison High School, and be on her way to a career in agriculture.

In February, Erica was showing her Shorthorn steer at the San Antonio Livestock Show, and had just found out one of her cows had been purchased by the same man in Colorado who plans to give her a summer job, working with embryo transplants.

Although the students who attend James Madison are mostly "city kids," all of the students have one thing in common ... they love animals. The magnet school offers a big barn to house the students' animals, and the students are responsible for their care, feeding and grooming. Erica arrives at school at 7 a.m., two hours before classes start, so she can feed and care for her two goats, two steers, and a heifer.

Erica said she joined the Junior FFA when she was in the fifth grade. She has an older brother who had been in FFA, and since she loved animals, too, she followed his lead by joining the organization and purchasing her first animals -- rabbits.

She'll also follow in her brother's collegiate footsteps. Her brother recently graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and Erica plans to attend Tech next fall and major in ag economics.

But before she starts to Texas Tech, she plans to spend much of her summer working with an embryo transplant operation in Colorado. She said she is very excited about the prospect of learning more about the field.

The summer job should be somewhat of a "vacation" for Erica, after all the months of early arrivals to care for her animals at school. Although she said the early hours were the "hardest part" of having show animals, she has really enjoyed the competition and said she "usually wins!"

Even though Erica is looking forward to college and the summer job, she will miss the time spent with her animals; the friends she's met and made; and even the times she was kicked or stepped on by her animals. But, mostly, she'll miss the joy of winning in the show pen with the animals she's learned to love.