Daniel Richter recently joined CAST as the new student administrative assistant. He is looking forward to learning more about various aspects of finance and accounting, but also helping out around the office.

Daniel grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, but is originally from a small town in northwest Iowa. He worked at a small animal hospital for two summers and that’s where he began to have an appreciation for animal science, even though he didn’t grow up on a farm. Since he was six years old, he’s had a small Yorkshire Terrier/Schnauzer mix dog named Maddie, who is now 15 years old.  Daniel loves spending time with her especially on walks.

He is the youngest of five kids, the only one to attend Iowa State University, and the only one interested in animal science and business. For his first semester of college he attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he majored in business. Daniel decided he wanted to attend Iowa State University as he had the inclination to pursue animal science after previously working at an animal hospital. He realized he wanted to change his major to finance as he wanted to better understand how to manage both personal and business financials.

This past spring, he was involved with a program at Iowa State University called Alternative Breaks—an organization that provides students with an opportunity to go on service trips. Daniel went to Cedar Rapids, where he worked on building an urban farm. The group built plant beds for growing vegetables for the low-income housing community devastated by the derecho that hit in August 2020.

Daniel has spent time traveling abroad to Spain, France, and Canada—he hopes to travel to many other countries as well in the future including Scotland, where his sister lives. He has many hobbies including golfing, playing the card game cribbage with family, spending time with his dog, and time outdoors.