488 - Career Awareness of Incoming University of Florida Animal Science Majors

Abstract: A disproportionate number of Animal Science (ANS) students start their program with the intent of pursuing veterinary school. While some succeed, most change career paths either by personal choice or not gaining admission into veterinary school. Ideally, the sooner a student identifies alternative career path(s), the more opportunities they have to prepare for those careers by pursuing additional classes and extracurriculars. The University of Florida (UF) is unique compared to peer institutions with a 30% freshman acceptance rate, an overwhelming 41% of UF ANS students arrive as transfers. This compresses the time to matriculate through the ANS curriculum and increases the urgency to redirect students into the numerous ANS career paths. The objective of this study is to better understand ANS student’s perceptions of careers. We conducted a career awareness survey at the start and end of the ANS3006 Introduction to Animal Science course over the past two years. Students (n=352) were asked demographic information, and completed an online instrument evaluating their awareness of career options available to them. Over 49% could not list more than two careers. Veterinarian was the most common and appeared on 76% of responses. Students are exposed to careers throughout each lecture module and related career-focused assignments. In the post test evaluation, 57% listed more than two careers, with the average increasing from 2.8 to 3.6 careers per student. Additionally, 18.8% of students indicated their career goals had changed over the course of the semester, with more than 2/3 or those being students who changed from a veterinary path. In conclusion, ANS students arriving at UF have a limited outlook on career options. While introduction to ANS has some success in expanding those options, more efforts need to be made in the current curriculum and through secondary education to increase awareness of ANS careers.