By HEIDI KNAKE
UNK Communications
CURTIS – Leighlynn Towne is a big believer in the value of higher education.
“I’ve really seen education open doors for me,” the Grand Island native said.
Now living outside Curtis, she traveled to the University of Nebraska at Kearney last week to receive her master’s degree in biology during the spring commencement ceremony. That accomplishment is already opening another door.
With her master’s, Towne will advance from lecturer to assistant professor of veterinary technology at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, where she also serves as head coach of the stock dog team.
Her career today looks much different than what she envisioned a decade ago.
Towne initially earned a bachelor’s degree in textiles, merchandising and fashion design from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, then spent time traveling and working a variety of jobs, including making saddles in Montana. Eventually, she realized she wanted something different.
After returning to Nebraska, she enrolled in NCTA’s veterinary technology program and discovered an unexpected passion for science.
“I didn’t realize I liked biology so much,” she said. “It was a big eye-opener.”
She also found another passion through the NCTA stock dog team, a unique collegiate program where students train and compete with their own herding dogs while gaining hands-on livestock experience.
“I’ve always loved dogs and wanted to know how to train a working dog,” Towne said.
Like most students in the program, she started with no experience. After her first practice with her 6-year-old Australian shepherd, the late Eddie Merritt – a supporter and volunteer for the NCTA stock dog team – bluntly told her the dog wouldn’t do.
Merritt helped her find a more suitable dog, and Towne received her first border collie, Gryff. With her new dog and Merritt’s mentorship, she flourished in the program.
Following graduation in 2019, she volunteered alongside Merritt while working as a vet tech at a local clinic and training dogs of her own. Her animals have won stock dog competitions and gone on to work with farmers and ranchers across the country, from Nebraska to Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Florida.
Stock dogs remain central to both her career and life beyond campus. Towne and her husband have five border collies on their fifth-generation ranch, where the dogs help herd livestock.
“Work that would take 20 minutes takes five minutes with a dog,” she said.
A year after graduating from NCTA, Towne accepted a full-time lecturer position in the veterinary technology program and became head coach of the stock dog team. Then she enrolled in the online master’s degree program in biology through UNK.
“Not only has the information I’ve gotten through the program helped strengthen my knowledge, but I’ve been able to learn creative ways of teaching lessons,” Towne said.
With more than 50 electives available in the program, she was able to take classes that directly related to both her teaching and dog training.
Towne spent nearly five years working on her master’s degree while teaching full time, helping on the ranch, coaching, training dogs and starting a family of her own.
“I had a lot of life going on at that time,” she said. “The program being online made furthering my education possible.”
All of the hard work paid off last week, when her husband and now 2-year-old daughter were on hand to watch Towne receive her third college degree.
