Presented By: Shyam Nair, Sam Houston State University
Co-Authors: Mark Anderson, Sam Houston State University
Mark Mainline, Sam Houston State University
Maureen Victoria, Sam Houston State University

There is a great need to develop skilled agricultural professionals and policymakers to address the unprecedented challenges faced by US agriculture. [UNIVERSITY] holds a yearly event for high school juniors and seniors to familiarize them with college life and to increase their agricultural knowledge and interest. In 2023, the event consisted of seminars in Agribusiness (team-building and trade game), Agricultural Communications (interview and Ag advocacy activities), Agricultural Engineering Technology (CNC Plasma Cutting and CAD/CAM software design), Animal Science (palpating a cannulated cow, evaluating equine semen, and wildlife archery), and Plant and Soil Sciences (fertilizer technology and plant propagation techniques). Each seminar was 65 minutes long and each student was prompted to register for two seminars. The event started with a welcome session describing the admissions requirements, scholarship opportunities, and the first-year experience followed by two seminars of their choosing. At the end of the event, participants completed a survey instrument with questions regarding their classification, gender, race, and pre-post opinions on their agricultural knowledge, familiarity with the school of agricultural sciences, and interest to pursue a baccalaureate degree in agriculture (n=47). Paired t-tests were used to assess the effectiveness of the event and Multiple Linear Regression was used to analyze the impact of classification, race, and gender on effectiveness. The paired t-tests showed significantly increased familiarity with the School of Agricultural Sciences (p<0.001) and increased agricultural knowledge (p<0.001) for the participants. The interest in pursuing agricultural degree increased significantly (p<0.001) from 2.5 to 3.8 on a 5-point Likert-type scale (5=highly interested). The increase in interest to study agriculture was higher for white students compared to others (p<0.01). Exposing high school students to the college environment and engaging them in hands-on activities can familiarize them with the department and encourage them to pursue agriculture at the post-secondary academic level.