Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources is home to students from many walks of life. Most students come to campus as freshmen knowing about Texas Tech University and all it has to offer
Some students arrive to campus after a 15-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, others walk into an unknown house found on Facebook after being honorably discharged from the military, or some return to the classroom at 30 years old with a badge and uniform.
Down Under to Out West
“It didn’t really click for me that I had moved countries,” said Lily Seaton-Cooper, a sophomore animal science major from Marulan, New South Wales, Australia.
Seaton-Cooper said her family watched her and her godbrother drive away as he told her that America was her life now.
The timid girl described the transition to be stressful, but that moving away to boarding school was a normal thing for Australian children.
“I left home at 12 years old, and I didn’t return,” Seaton-Cooper said. “I think in my head, moving halfway across the world wasn’t that big of a deal because I hadn’t been at home for so long. I’d been independent already, and I’d been on my own and I knew how to handle that.”
Seaton-Cooper said her family has strong ties to agriculture, with being primarily sheep farmers until her father took over the operation. They now produce Wagyu cattle.
When Seaton-Cooper described her decision-making process, she said she had no idea what she wanted to do, but she loved the agriculture industry and thought about a career in it.
“As soon as my dad caught wind of that idea, he said ‘Okay, you should move to America,’” Seaton-Cooper said. “So, I applied to A&M and Tech. I came over here and visited right after I graduated and got into both schools.”
Markus Miller, Ph.D., San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo Chair in meat science, was an important professor that helped her make her decision to attend Texas Tech Seaton-Cooper said.
“Something Dr. Miller said when I first met him and was still unsure about where I wanted to go, whether I wanted to come here or whether I wanted to stay at home was ‘God is going to tell you what you need to do,’” Seaton-Cooper said. “Then I was literally home one day, and I got an email from Texas Tech saying ‘congrats, you’ve been accepted’ and I just sort of had a gut feeling and I knew that this is what I needed to do. So, I did it.”
Seaton-Cooper moved into her blue, Aussie ocean-themed Stangle dorm room in August 2023 with two suitcases of vacuum-sealed clothes.
“I just dove in headfirst thinking it would be absolutely fine”
Lilly Seaton-Cooper
“I just dove in headfirst thinking it would be absolutely fine,” Seaton-Cooper said. “There’s a school motto associated with our [boarding] school which is ‘grit, gratitude and good humor.’ I was so thankful that I actually got the opportunity to do this.
At Texas Tech, Seaton-Cooper got involved on the Meat Judging team, which she says has taught her much more than how to evaluate beef, pork and lamb.
“You spend so many hours in the cooler and looking at all these ribeyes,” she said. “For me, meat judging isn’t just about the meat. It is about all those soft skills that you learn, like resilience.”
Seaton-Cooper said another aspect of her life Davis College helped her find was her faith.
“My relationship with God has totally done a 180,” Seaton-Cooper said. “It’s everywhere here. I think that’s become really strong and I think that’s something I will take back.”
Seaton-Cooper said Davis College’s inviting culture has made her transition across the world a bit easier.
“It’s big, but it’s little,” Seaton-Cooper said. “There are so many things happening all the time, but I walk into all of my animal science classes, and I know someone; I know the faces in there, and I think that’s really amazing. I think that aspect of community on a larger scale, as a whole college, is really cool.”
Runway into Lubbock
Jaci Stewart also had an unconventional path to Davis College. In the summer of 2020, the senior agricultural and applied economics major, from Roscoe, Texas, was starting boot camp for the United State Air Force.
“I enlisted as a 1NO operations intelligence analyst,” Stewart said. “For that job, you have to have top secret clearance. I had gone through all the background checks and everything.”
After boot camp, Stewart went to San Angelo’s Goodfellow Air Force Base and also started tech school.
“It kind of felt like I got the best of both worlds, because if I was going to go to college, it’d be [Angelo State University].”
Stewart said her decision to join the military stemmed from her desire to travel and experience the world. However, 2020 had other plans.
“We were not able to leave our rooms at all, whatsoever,” Stewart said. “At one point, they moved me into a hotel on base, and I was by myself for two weeks. They delivered food to me.”
Stewart said tech school and making connections with people during quarantine became a real struggle on her mental health.
“I couldn’t pass the dang mission planning block, and ended up getting reclassed,” Stewart said. “[The Air Force] said, ‘Give us five or six jobs you’d be interested in, and we’ll put you there.’ So, I put in a few different medical positions.”
The Air Force sent her to Fort Lee, Virginia, where she graduated with a certificate with academic excellence and became part of the Force Support Squadron, which is responsible for activities like search and rescue, mortuary and running the dining facility; where Stewart was assigned.
With all these changes, Stewart said she started to question her purpose in the Air Force, especially after being sent to Guam for three months. While in Guam, Stewart said she faced many challenges when it came to vaccine requirements and her mental health. Eventually, she was discharged from the military due to these challenges and came back to Texas. She said college seemed like the next step.
Stewart landed at Angelo State, but she still had not found her place.
“As soon as I knew that I was being separated and going home, I started applying to Angelo State,” Stewart said. “It was smaller, and it wasn’t super crazy big and overwhelming… I ended up just being miserable living in Angelo … I just transferred and showed up here [Texas Tech].”
She signed a lease on a house in Lubbock she found on Facebook, sight unseen. While in between leases, she even lived out of her car for two weeks to finish up her work in San Angelo.
Once in Lubbock, Stewart said she found what she was looking for at Texas Tech.
“I feel like people are more willing to help, and I feel like overall, people are just friendlier,” Stewart said. “Even the professors… I’ve had a lot more luck and just a lot more help from professors at Tech.”
Stewart said she misses her friends and the structure and accountability the military offered but forming relationships with her professors in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics gave her some of those qualities.
“I know them on more a personal level,” Stewart said.
A Badge and Vines
Uniforms are something that is not completely uncommon in Davis College.
Jeff Bain is a sophomore plant and soil science major with a concentration in viticulture and enology from Arlington, Texas. However, when class is over, the 34-year-old undergraduate clocks in with the Texas Tech Police Department as a patrol supervisor.
“Typically, I’ll wake up, and I’ll head to campus as a student,” Bain said dressed in a bullet-proof vest and a holster around his waist. “I’ll go to class and get all that squared away, and then I’ll head home, change real quick, and then come back up here in my next outfit, which will be my uniform, and I’ll go on patrol.”
Bain said he was drawn to viticulture and enology because of his previous connection to the wine industry.
“My wife’s grandfather helped found Llano Estacado [Winery],” Bain said after fiddling with his radio on his belt. “So, moving out here, I just was wrapped in that culture, in that environment, and just really felt at home. Talking to the winemaker and the people in the tasting room [Llano Estacado Winery] and everything, and it just felt right.”
Bain joined the Texas Tech Police Department in 2017 as a dispatcher.
“I’ve always been a person that wants to help people, so I saw that opportunity to be able to help people, and I thought that, ‘Hey, that’s it. I want to be a dispatcher and do that,’” Bain said. “Then once I got into it, I was able to see that I wanted more and be able to actually be out here on the street and help people. That was my drive behind it.”
After working for Texas Tech Police for a few years, Bain began working on his bachelor’s degree in 2021.
“They’re all for it,” Bain said of the support he receives from Texas Tech Police. “There’s quite a few of the employees at the police department that are going to school as well. So, they’ve been very supportive of it.”
Bain said time management has been key to his ability to juggle school and work. On top of patrolling and studying, he is also a Texas Tech Staff Senator and an Honors College Ambassador, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
“I have to be very flexible, because I may be doing classes in person the next semester, maybe online,” Bain said. “So, I have to be very fluid.”
As a non-traditional student, Bain said he is still getting a great experience from Davis College.
“It’s such a diverse population that every class I’ve been in, I’ve felt welcomed, and part of the group,” he said. “I feel like I fit in here.”
Bain said Davis College is giving him skills that will help him with his continued career.
“I feel like I’m more well-rounded being able to just communicate with everybody,” Bain said. “I have those relationships across the board with the university.”
Bain said people recognize him for different reasons on campus, either being an officer, being a part of Staff Senate or in the classroom.
Bain takes six to nine hours a semester and is projected to graduate in 2027.
“I’m always here anyways, and with just how welcoming it is here it doesn’t bother me that it’s going to take me a little bit longer than normal,” Bain said.
With the skills learned through his degree, Bain hopes to one day purchase some land and start a vineyard of his own.
“I’m always here anyways, and with just how welcoming it is here it doesn’t bother me that it’s going to take me a little bit longer than normal,” Bain said.
Bain said he does not plan on leaving the police force once he graduates and hopes to add a little piece of his degree to his everyday life.
“After I get my degree, I’ll still be working here, because this is the career I’ve chosen,” Bain said. “I love Texas Tech and the police department.”
Alayna Koemel, Lead Writer; Emery Robles, Photo Director; Amanda Ruscitti, Design Coordinator; Abigail Trapp, Co-digital Manager; Grace Schubert, Co-digital Manager.