380 Awardee Talk: Deer eat Birds and Other Revelations: Teaching a Changing Demographic of Animal Science Student

Animal Science (ANS) programs have seen the demographics of their students progressively shift to include more urban and suburban students with limited firsthand knowledge of production agriculture. A major contributor to that shift is an influx of students with the intent of pursuing veterinary school, primarily with the goal of working with companion animals. The change in students has its challenges, but also presents opportunities. It is a chance to communicate with our customers, voters, and prospective thought leaders and decision makers. It is also a chance to recruit new and diverse talent into animal agriculture to help solve current and future problems. Despite the high number of students interested in pursuing vet school, a small percentage gain admittance making it important to help students recognize alternate career paths as soon as possible. This is particularly critical at the University of Florida where 41% of our students are transfers. We questioned if the students’ focus on entering the veterinary field is due to viewing it as their best career opportunity, or their only opportunity. We conducted a career awareness survey at the start and end of the ANS3006 Introduction to Animal Science course over the past several years. Over 49% could not list more than two ANS-related careers. Veterinarian was the most common and appeared on 76% of responses. In turn, we have incorporated more career-related content into ANS3006. In the post survey evaluation, 57% listed more than two careers and 18.8% of students indicated their career goals had changed over the course of the semester, with more than 2/3 of those being students who changed from a veterinary path. Anecdotally, our advisors report students are more amenable to changing from the pre-vet track when encouraged. Emphasizing the opportunities is an effective way to help students find the career paths they may have otherwise missed.