USDA Announces Scholarship Program

February 7, 2018 — 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is pleased to announce the 2018 Adel A. Malak Scholarship Program. The scholarship was created to honor the memory of Dr. Adel A. Malak, a dedicated former FSIS Public Health Veterinarian (PHV), the program is looking to recruit students to crucial Public Health Veterinarian positions in the Office of Field Operations (OFO).

Scholarship recipients will gain experience through a variety of PHV responsibilities. Working in FSIS regulated establishments, scholars will:

• Assist in the examination of livestock and poultry for the purpose of detecting diseases or abnormalities which would render the meat unfit for human food purposes.
• Work with line inspectors to perform visual, tactile, and incisory inspections of heads, viscera, carcasses, and edible offal.
• Assist a program veterinarian in making dispositions on abnormal animals, carcasses, or birds retained for veterinary examination. These dispositions will include infectious diseases, neoplasms, trauma, contamination, poisonings, residues, metabolic disorders, etc.
• Assist a program veterinarian in performing activities to verify that animals are handled and treated humanely.
• Observe conditions in the establishment to ensure that sanitary conditions meet prescribed requirements.
• Observe conditions in the establishment to ensure the plant is following its Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs).

The program provides students with $15,000 for tuition and school expenses for each year in the program, paid employment during summer and school breaks, a comprehensive mentorship, and federal benefits. After completion of their veterinary program, scholarship recipients must become an FSIS full-time employee in OFO for at least one calendar year for each school year that the student was covered by the scholarship. As part of the USDA Pathways Program, participants will have the opportunity for non-competitive conversion to a permanent appointment with FSIS' OFO upon successful completion of the program with a DVM degree, training, and other work requirements.

The Adel A. Malak Scholarship is open to students who are currently enrolled full-time in a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree program at an accredited college of Veterinary Medicine and who have at least one year of study in Veterinary Medicine remaining or who have been accepted into an accredited college of Veterinary Medicine.

Interested students must apply online via FSIS-2018-SCHOLAR-0314 or click http://www.usajobs.gov and locate the announcement using the keywords "Adel A. Malak" in the search engine. For more information go to Adel A. Malak Scholarship or email Adel.A.MalakScholarship@fsis.usda.gov.