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Arp High School biology students have garnered an unparalleled amount of real world knowledge in less than five weeks.
In late January, Arp ISD school board president Earnest Stroupe, who is a long time emergency room physician paid them a visit and talked to them about the causes and effects of heart disease.
That was followed up on the final day of February by his son, 2013 Arp High School grad Sam Stroupe. Sam now does groundbreaking research as a PhD student at Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine.
Thrilled to be back at his alma mater, Sam spoke to the various biology classes about DNA and genetic research on animals with a focus on bison.
Along those lines, he explained to the students that this was a career opportunity that he "stumbled upon," and the importance of always keeping your options open.
"Most of the time you don't even understand what career you're going to go into until you're already there," said Stroupe. "I didn't really fully know about the opportunities of genetic research, until I was kind of in the middle of it. Just being able to know that there's more things out there, could help someone understand what they want to do with their life."
Sam works under Dr. James Derr in the DNA Technologies and Core Laboratory at A&M studying bison genetics and genomics.
Sharing some of the insight he has attained with his roots means a great deal to Sam.
"Everyone here has mutations," he told a group of Arp High School students. "All it takes is one little change in your DNA, and you can have a drastic difference."
He explained as an example how if someone "is interested in animal breeding," understanding genetics could help them figure out "which cow produces the best calf."
Stroupe added, "Since everything has DNA, from bacteria to plants to animals, everything that's living, in all kind of relates to each other."
He believes people should at least understand (genetics) at a general level. "Any time there's new technology, a lot of people that are scared or skeptical, or have a hard time, it's because they don't understand some of the basic concepts."
"Once we kind of understand some of the basics, then we can understand how it can actually improve upon our lives and how there's good things that can come about it instead of the scary things, and the things that we may not understand," Stroupe clarified.
He points out that we should be excited about the possibilities of DNA research.
Stroupe stressed to his fellow Tigers the value of not curbing themselves or narrowing their outlook even in rural America.
"Don't limit yourself by thinking you don't have those opportunities by being from somewhere like Arp, because there is a lot of people from Arp that go on and and do great things elsewhere. And there's a lot of those people that come back to Arp and do things great here," said Stroupe.
"I think no matter what, just being open to new experiences and not being scared to leave and learn new things and have new experiences is important," he added.