Progress 07/15/23 to 07/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Of the original cohort of 10 undergraduate students selected for the M-SPEAL program, there were eight students still participating in the program during this reporting period. These students are senior pre-veterinary medicine students at Texas A&M University-Kingsville who will receive the scholarship, individual mentoring program, the SEL with a rural veterinarian, and a multicultural educational tour in Colombia. Additionally, the M-SPEAL program has created a few podcasts that are available via YouTube for which the targeted audience is any pre-veterinary student or any student considering veterinary medicine. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The opportunities for students in south Texas whose college degree is pre-veterinary included training and professional development throughtraveling to Colombia to learn about and be exposed to numerous aspects of the veterinary field in a foreign country, hands-on experiential learning by working for rural veterinarians,workshops about the veterinary school interview processas well as receiving one-on-one mentoring from animal science faculty.Specifically in the summer, four students traveled with Dr. Tanner Machado, Dr. Consuelo Donato and Dr. Shad Nelson toColombia for a 10-day immersive experience. Activities included tour of the fish farming operations at Finca la Angelita and Hacienda Montelindo as well as the Cocora Trout farm. Other tours included the Gyrolando Dairy, cattle finishing farm called Hacienda el Hatico, a water buffalo operation and a tour of the Universidad de Caldas's veterinary school. During the entire trip the group traveled with veterinarians from the Colombian Institute of Agriculture and spoke with local veterinarians at each location. Another four students were placed inrural veterinary hospitalsto work for two weeks. These students were exposed to the working environment of rural communities where veterinarians assist community members with petsand livestock. In the fall,Dr. Michelle Garcia and Dr. Tanner Machado hosted aworkshop about the veterinary school interview process. The workshop consisted of discussing how to prepare for the interviews, the structure of the interviews, types of questions that can be asked during the interviews, and general tips to have confidence during the interviews. Throughout the fall and spring semester, the students receivedprofessional development throughone-on-one monthly mentoring meetingswith Dr. Jason Apple, Dr. Michelle Garcia, Dr. Randy Stanko and Dr. Tanner Machado. Additionally, the M-SPEAL program expanded the number of podcasts designed to help students who are wanting to become veterinarians learn more about the experience of applying and pursuing a degree in veterinary medicine from students who are currently in vet school. These videos can be found if you search in YouTube for "MSPEAL-No.2" and "MSPEAL-No.3" by Tanner Machado and are available to anyone. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, it is planned to continue mentoring the M-SPEAL students who are still attending Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and to create more podcast videos. Both of those planned activities will assist students to achieve their career goals. Furthermore, the project budgeted for scholarships for 10 students and over the course of the past two years there were two students who are no longer in the program. Thus, it is intended to have new applications for students who would like to have a paid rural veterinary experience and apply the scholarship money to those students.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The M-SPEAL program is intended to increase the number of bilingual, rural livestock veterinarians and value a multicultural society in a rural setting. The M-SPEAL program will address two challenges faced by U.S. food-animal agriculture: 1) a lack of underrepresented students accepted into and graduating from Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, and 2) a shortage of rural and food-animal veterinarians. To accomplish this the M-SPEAL program will initiate the building of a support system early in the student's educational career and continues by providing valuable experiences and experiential learning while the students pursue an undergraduate Pre-Veterinary Degree. Specifically, there are five aspects of M-SPEAL, collectively all aspects aim to meet the goals of NIFA. The five M-SPEAL aspects are 1) provide financial support to undergraduate student scholars for three years (based on a 4-yr. graduation), 2) provide an 80-hour Rural Veterinarian Special Experiential Learning (SEL) activity, 3) participation of all scholars in a multicultural agriculture and veterinary medicine experience in Colombia, South America and 4) ongoing mentorship of participating undergraduate student scholars. The M-SPEAL program will increase qualified personnel entering the food and agricultural workforce, support undergraduates in transitioning to graduate education (D.V.M.), and provide support structure allowing students to be successful in food and agricultural fields. Goal 1 was to increase pre-veterinary students' awareness of multicultural societies and career opportunities within the veterinary field. There were four senior students who participated in a 10-day immersive experience in Colombia, South America where they visited several different types of farms and learned about livestock production and the role of veterinarians in producing safe, nutritious food as well as the role of veterinarians dealing with ornamental fish for export. An additional four senior students were placed in rural veterinary hospitals to work for two weeks learning how veterinarians assist community members with pets and livestock. During the fall, all eight of the senior students participated in a workshop about the next steps after applying for veterinary school such as preparation for the interview process by veterinary schools. Throughout the school year, the eight senior students were mentored by animal science faculty with monthly one-on-one meetings where career opportunities were discussed. Goal 2 was to achieve 100% retention of the students selected into the M-SPEAL program allowing them to complete a B.S. Pre-Veterinary Animal Science degree. Through the program's activities and mentorship by faculty the student participants began to understand more of the careers they would like to pursue. In this discovery process, one student changed their major to pre-med instead of pre-vet, and another student transferred to another university to pursue a bachelor of arts, communication and public relations. Thus, at this time the program has retained 80% of the students who were selected as freshman/sophomores and are now juniors/seniors. Goal 3 was to graduate 100% of the student scholars within four years with a B.S. in Animal Science, Pre-Veterinary option. Of the students retained in the M-SPEAL program, 63% graduated within four years with a B.S. in Animal Science, Pre-Veterinary option with the remainder scheduled to graduate in 4.5 or 5 years. This is a higher graduation rate than the national average where 40-45% of college students graduate in four years, and 100% of the students who are participating in the M-SPEAL program are on track to graduate is less than six years which is higher than the national six-year graduation rate of 62%. Goal 4 was to increase the number of students accepted into veterinary medical school on their first attempt or pursuing post-graduate education in food and agricultural disciplines. During this reporting period there were four students who applied to veterinary schools during the fall of their senior year with 25% getting accepted into vet-school on their first attempt. This is a higher acceptance rate compared to the 2020 national acceptance rate for all applicants which was 10.1% according to the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. The three students who didn't get accepted on their first attempt have expressed interest in re-applying next year. In the meantime, two of them plan on getting a job with veterinarians and one of them will be pursuing a graduate degree in Animal Science at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. When evaluating the career path for all five of the students who graduated within four years, one got accepted into veterinary school, one got accepted in to graduate school, two are working with veterinarians, and one student was accepted into the Veterinary Technology program at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. This would indicate that 60% achieved goal 4. Other key outcomes included expanding the number of podcasts designed to help students who are wanting to become veterinarians learn more about the experience of applying and pursuing a degree in veterinary medicine from students who are currently in vet school. These videos can be found if you search in YouTube for "MSPEAL-No.2" and "MSPEAL-No.3" by Tanner Machado.

Publications

Progress 07/15/22 to 07/14/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this reporting period were 10 pre-veterinary undergraduate students who participated in monthly mentoring with animal science faculty and either a summer rural veterinary experience or a cultural trip to Colombia to learn about veterinarians in another country. Additionally, this M-SPEAL program sent out a survey to all of the pre-veterinary students within the college and recieved 70 responses. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The opportunities for students in south Texas whose college degree is pre-veterinary included training and professional development throughhands-on experiential learning by working for rural veterinarians, traveling to Colombia to learn about and be exposed to numerous aspects of the veterinary field in a foreign country,workshops about applying to veterinary schoolas well as receiving one-on-one mentoring from animal science faculty. Specifically in the summer, five students were placed in rural veterinary hospitals to work for two weeks. These students were exposed to the working environment of rural communities where veterinarians assist community members with petsand livestock. Another five students traveled with Dr. Tanner Machado, Dr. Consuelo Donato and Dr. Shad Nelson to Colombia for a nine-day immersive experience. Activities included tour of the Finca El Bosque that had Norman livestock for the high tropics, a collagen plant that utilizes beef by-products to produce gelatin, Finca La Pradera which had dairy and hogbarns, Finca Montelindo that had a fish farm, afarm that raised bulls for bullfighting, and Criadero Anita that raised Colombian Paso Fino horses. During the entire trip the group traveled with veterinarians from the Colombian Institute of Agriculture and spoke with local veterinarians at each location. In the fall,Dr. Michelle Garcia and Dr. Tanner Machado hosted a workshop about applying to veterinary school. The workshop consisted of discussing the pre-requisites for applying, the steps to the application including required documents and supplemental exams, as well as providing tips to writing effective essays. Throughout the fall and spring semester, the students received professional development throughone-on-one monthly mentoring meetings with Dr. Jason Apple, Dr. Michelle Garcia, Dr. Randy Stanko and Dr. Tanner Machado. To expand the impact of the project, all pre-veterinary students at Texas A&M University-Kingsville received a survey to determine what they would like to learn from current veterinary students. The responses were then utilized to create a podcast which can be found by searching in YouTube for "MSPEAL-No.1" by Tanner Machado. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, it is planned to continue the monthly mentoring of the M-SPEAL students as well as complete the summer rural veterinary experience and Colombia educational trip. Furthermore, workshops will be completed that will assist the students in their academic and career goals and additional podcast recordings will be published for any pre-veterinary student to learn from.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The M-SPEAL program is intended to increase the number of bilingual, rural livestock veterinarians and value a multicultural society in a rural setting. The M-SPEAL program will address two challenges faced by U.S. food-animal agriculture: 1) a lack of underrepresented students accepted into and graduating from Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, and 2) a shortage of rural and food-animal veterinarians. To accomplish this the M-SPEAL program will initiate the building of a support system early in the student's educational career and continues by providing valuable experiences and experiential learning while the students pursue an undergraduate Pre-Veterinary Degree. Specifically, there are five aspects of M-SPEAL, collectively all aspects aim to meet the goals of NIFA. The five M-SPEAL aspects are 1) provide financial support to undergraduate student scholars for three years (based on a 4-yr. graduation), 2) provide an 80-hour Rural Veterinarian Special Experiential Learning (SEL) activity, 3) participation of all scholars in a multicultural agriculture and veterinary medicine experience in Colombia, South America and 4) ongoing mentorship of participating undergraduate student scholars. The M-SPEAL program will increase qualified personnel entering the food and agricultural workforce, support undergraduates in transitioning to graduate education (D.V.M.), and provide support structure allowing students to be successful in food and agricultural fields. Of the four major goals of this project, only two of the goals could be measured during the current reporting period for which were goals 1 and 2. Goal 1 was to increase pre-veterinary students' awareness of multicultural societies and career opportunities within the veterinary field. There were five junior students who participated in a nine-day immersive experience in Colombia, South America where they visited several different types of farms and learned about livestock production and the role of veterinarians in producing safe, nutritious food as well as the role of veterinarians dealing with recreational animals like horses. An additional five junior students were placed in rural veterinary hospitals to work for two weeks learning how veterinarians assist community members with pets and livestock. During the fall, all ten of the junior students participated in a workshop about applying to veterinary school. Throughout the school year, the ten junior students were mentored by animal science faculty with monthly one-on-one meetings where career opportunities were discussed. Goal 2 was to achieve 100% retention of the students selected into the M-SPEAL program allowing them to complete a B.S. Pre-Veterinary Animal Science degree. Through the program's activities and mentorship by faculty the student participants began to understand more of the careers they would like to pursue. In this discovery process, one of the students realized after completing their rural veterinary experience that the human medical field was more in-line with their life goals and they changed their major to pre-med. Although Goals 3 and 4 were not directly measured during the reporting period, all activities conducted do assist in reaching those goals. Other key outcomes were the development of a podcast designed to help students who are wanting to become veterinarians learn more about the experience of applying and pursuing a degree in veterinary medicine from students who are currently in vet school, and the development of a program website (www.tamuk.edu/agriculture/research/usdahsigrants/MSPEAL.html).

Publications

Progress 07/15/21 to 07/14/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this reporting period were the 10 undergraduate students who were selected to participate in the M-SPEAL program. Those students will be the ones who receive the scholarship, individual mentoring program,the SEL with a rural veterinarian, and a multicultural educational tour in Colombia. Changes/Problems:Overall, the progress made with the program is on-track with what was identified as milestones in the grant proposal. There have been minor challenges, mostly dealing with scheduling activities amongst the 10 students and the grant faculty. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The 10 undergraduate students have had the opportunity for being mentored by animal science faculty which can be considered part of the students' professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?No results have been assimilated. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Items that need to occur in the next two months include, solidifying the Colombia trip, outlining the working relationship of the students with their Rural Veterinarians for their SEL, and host at least one seminar/workshop for the Pre-Veterinary students.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In the 2021 fall semester, students were recruited to apply for the M-SPEAL program. Once all applications where submitted, the students who applied were interviewed in November by the grant personnel to determine which students would benefit the most from participating in the program and the final selection occurred in December. Below is the list of the 10 sophomore students who will be participating in the M-SPEAL program: Margarita Aguero Aaliyah Garcia Mary Godfrey Brianna Gonzalez Mariangels Gonzalez Myrka Gonzalez Nayery Rocha Erik Velazquez Julia Warren Caitlin Willson In the 2022 spring semester, several actions have taken place. First, all the paperwork has been submitted for the 10 students to receive their first $3,500 scholarship for which will be an annual scholarship until their senior year. At the time of submission of this progress report, the money has not been distributed, yet the students will receive it this semester. The second action that has occurred is the individual mentoring program has started. Prior to the initial mentoring meeting, the student participants and faculty members completed a personality test to help facilitate constructive interactions in the mentoring meetings. The concept of incorporating personality tests within working environments has not only been shown in mentoring research to be effective, it has lately been incorporated into veterinary schools to improve the working environment within the student body base. Thus, this activity that is a part of this program is helping the students prepare and understand more completely the reason for and value of personality tests. This first semester of the mentoring, the students will meet with each faculty member once and then next semester they will get to choose who they would like to have as their mentor next year. When the students met with the faculty for the first time in their one-on-one meeting, they filled in the document about their goals. Their second meeting is about academic planning. The third action has been the planning for the multicultural trip to Colombia. In the fall of 2021, a written agreement between TAMUK and the Universidad de Caldas was initiatedin order to begin the process of taking the students to Colombia. Regular meetings have occurred with individuals in Colombia since the agreement was initiated, and wehave started to outline the agenda for the first trip to Colombia. Additionally, we have identified which five students will be going to Colombia the first year and then the SEL with Rural Veterinarians the second year. The other five students then will be doing their SEL this summer and Colombia the next year. The process was a mutual agreement amongst all students based on their academic and personal goals.

Publications