When Kasse Freeman was a young student in Sutherlin schools, where she attended kindergarten through graduation, she dreamed of being in front of the classroom and becoming a teacher, just like her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, who taught in the Sutherlin school system. However, that dream changed once she became involved in the FFA program. Kasse loves to be involved and interact with others. In high school, she competed in volleyball, basketball, softball, FFA activities and was active in FBLA, Leadership, and National Honor Society. She also showed dairy cows in 4-H, a family activity that began very young and continued through high school. Her engagement in these various activities taught her to be compassionate, to demonstrate leadership, and to delegate and communicate with others. She knew she wanted to become a veterinarian during her junior year after taking the animal science class. She made time in her busy schedule to job shadow at Bailey’s Veterinary Clinic and confirmed that this was the career she wanted to pursue. Her biggest challenge was balancing her activities with schoolwork and personal time, and in her senior year, the time she invested submitting applications for college scholarships.
Following her graduation from Sutherlin in 2011, she attended Eastern Oregon University, from which she graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. With a bachelor’s degree, she applied to Oregon State University’s veterinary program but was not accepted as she had insufficient experience. Not one to give up, Kasse worked for a year with a veterinarian doing embryology (artificial insemination) with large animals, a job in which she traveled throughout Oregon, into California, and even to Hawaii, but learned she did not like being away from home. After gaining experience, she reapplied to Oregon State’s Veterinary program and was accepted into the four-year program. Kasse received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 2020.
She returned to Sutherlin and began working as a Calapooia Veterinary Center veterinarian with Dr. Joe Roberts. Her first patients were the pets of her parents, Misse and Robert Freeman. Kasse loves her job, and each day is different; generally, surgeries are done in the morning, and then she sees patients in the afternoon. She also makes emergency calls and likes these calls the most, as she finds it gratifying to help an animal in distress when they are the most vulnerable and in need of assistance (as their owner often is also).
Kasse lives in Sutherlin with her cat, who went to college with her. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends and snowboarding, paddleboarding, and riding four-wheelers.
Sandra Cox likes to read. When she was younger, she dreamed of becoming a librarian; however, experiences and time gave her a new dream to pursue, and she is now a veterinary assistant at Calapooia Veterinary Center.
From K-12, Sandra was a student in the Sutherlin school system. During high school, she became involved with FFA and Spanish Club and participated outside of school in 4-H. Sandra was impacted by her experiences attending the FFA state conventions and the FFA National convention, and she credits this program with the many life skills she learned, especially public speaking. She received her FFA State Degree working with sheep and horses, and it was in the FFA program where she got interested in animal agriculture. While attending high school, she took as many college-level courses as possible, getting a head-start to meet college degree requirements. Sandra, one of seven valedictorians of Sutherlin's class of 2015, dual-enrolled at Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College, attending both schools simultaneously to study in the agricultural field, specifically animal sciences. While in college, she worked as a student office assistant at OSU's College of Veterinary Medicine. Her college courses built upon the foundational experiences she had gained from FFA and 4-H and provided a solid basis for a career in animal breeding, feeding, care, and welfare. In 2019, Sandra graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science.
While she desired to pursue a career in larger animal industries, most jobs are available in the South, a region she is not currently interested in. Sandra is continuing her education and is enrolled in an online veterinary technician program and plans to receive her certification soon. She works four days a week with 10-hour days typically --- if anything in a veterinary clinic's day can be considered "typical" – Sandra's tasks vary depending upon the patient's need. She recognizes flexibility and moving with the workflow as key elements of her day. You may find her admitting animals, taking their health history, listening to owner concerns, drawing blood, placing a catheter, making surgery preparations, administering medication, or conducting lab work. Sandra works with large and small animals and enjoys getting to know her patients and clients. She knows communication is imperative to get to a client's core needs and then to make sure the client understands the purpose of the recommended procedure or practice.
Sandra resides in Sutherlin with her pets: a Doxie, cat, and horse, although the horse is boarded. She stays active, always doing something, whether arts and crafts, crocheting, reading, or do-it-yourself projects.
Bailey Masterfield attended Sutherlin schools from kindergarten through her sophomore year before transferring to Oakland High School for her junior and senior years. While in Sutherlin schools, Bailey competed in volleyball, soccer, track, and FFA. While she enjoyed participating in these activities, she found she struggled with her studies and did not enjoy school very much; it was a challenge for her to build relationships and make new friends, and she disliked confrontation. After considerable deliberation, the decision was made for her to transfer to Oakland, where she continued in the FFA program, volleyball, and track and added FBLA to her activities. She acknowledges two teachers as having a great influence on her education: Dan Wilson, Sutherlin art instructor who helped her in drawing, learning to express herself, and learning to journal, an activity she still continues every day, and Oakland math teacher Susan Yates, who spent extra time with Bailey, making sure she understood the math material.
Upon graduating in 2017, she enrolled in UCC, planning to become a neonatal intensive care nurse. She was influenced by having been an infant who spent the first two weeks of her life in a neonatal intensive care unit. She attended UCC for four years, changing her major three times, starting in nursing, switching to psychology, and finally into the fire science/EMS program. She left college before obtaining her degree and began working in a fire department and, after a while, realized that was not really what she wanted. She went to work at Bailey's Veterinary Clinic and found this was an occupation she loved. She is now employed at Calapooia Veterinary Center as a veterinary assistant and is currently enrolled in an online veterinary technician program. In January, she will enroll at UCC to take the final class necessary to obtain her associate degree.
Bailey learns something new daily and has learned to trust co-workers, communicate with others, speak up, be open, and be independent. Her workday usually begins at 7 a.m. with setting up for surgery, preparing kennels and paperwork, taking patient's initial vital signs, taking patient's medical histories, cleaning kennels, prepping food, taking phone calls, providing vaccination information, and making surgery aftercare follow-up phone calls. Bailey resides in Sutherlin and has a German Shepherd hound and a kitten, which she adores. She enjoys spending time with her family, hunting deer, elk, bear, fishing, and going to the beach.