College of Agricultural Sciences Informational Webinar

OK, hello everyone, I am seeing our participant numbers go up so as everyone comes on into the webinar, if you wouldn't mind putting your name and what you're interested in studying into the chat, that would just be helpful or really excited for y'all to be here today. So if you are a participant, feel free.

Your name, what you're interested in studying, maybe where you're from into the chat and then we'll get started.

A little overview of what's going to be happening. I'll go over an economic overview of the College of Agricultural Sciences here at CSU, and then I'll invite some of our wonderful ambassadors who are current students to turn on their cameras at at after we go over the academic overview and you can ask your questions of them.

Awesome so Lydia from Illinois Animal science, awesome.

Feel free to put a little bit about yourself so your name where you're from and what you're interested in setting into the chat as you come on in.

I'll go ahead and get started. My name is Susan Brown. I'm there improvement coordinator here at the College of Agricultural Sciences. At CSU I use she, her hers pronouns and I'm really excited to be talking with you all. Today. I am a CSU RAM. I graduated in 2018 with degrees in wildlife, biology and zoology. So I do have a scientist by by training background but have moved into student affairs. I just really love working with you all to help find your place.

In college and hopefully at CSU.

Um, awesome where you have Olivia's mom great, nice to see you here.

So that you'll know why I'm going over this academic overview. Feel free to put chaps or questions into the chat if they apply directly to the questions that are part of the slides that are being shown. I can definitely answer them right away. Otherwise, if they are more geared towards our students will wait for that Q&A portion. So will hop right in to the academic overview.

So within the College of AG, the first thing I want to go over is this. Come to the table logo. This is really awesome. This is our new branding for the college and with this as well, you know we want you to feel welcome here and we want all of our students to come to the table, share their knowledge, learn from each other and be able to walk away from the table. Abetter member of society than when they walked upright. So whether that table is you're going to vet school and that's a veterinary surgery table, or whether that table is.

A lab bench and horticulture lab. Or whether it's a drafting table for landscape architecture, matter, what your interest is. You're coming to the table with students with faculty, with staff and learning from each other and getting to share your experience as a group.

You can also be coming around a picnic table. One of my favorite kinds of tables in the College of AG. We have a lot of great opportunities to share a meal together in a normal year and hopefully will be able to get back to that this next fall. Being able to have welcome picnics and we have different barbecues during different times of the year and just a really fun thing within the College of Egg that I really enjoy as well.

So with that going a little bit into the college itself, all of our majors result in a Bachelor of Science degree, and we have five different departments with 10 different majors within those departments and will go through each of those individually. If you see we have an well science equine therapy, horticulture, food, crop crops, interests, so I'll make sure that we touch on those as well.

We have about 1500 undergraduate students, which sets us at a little bit of one of the smaller colleges within the University, which is nice. We are able to have a little bit more interaction between students and faculty and staff, and it's a little bit more of a tight knit community than some of the other colleges at CSU.

We have about 35 clubs and organizations that are directly tide to the to the college. So whether that is something where you're representing the college like our Egg Council or are ambassadors who some of them will meet later or you are part of a judging team. So meet judging soil, judging plant identification, those kind of things all happen with clubs and organizations that are tide to the to the college and we also have 9 off campus research centers that are throughout Colorado. There's one that's really close.

Here in Fort Collins that we're able to take students to for different experiential learning opportunities, and then the other eight that are around the rest of the state of Colorado help with extension and engagement in those communities. So they are awesome opportunities. If you're from the state of Colorado to get involved. If you're not up near Fort Collins, you might have a Research Center by you that you can get connected to while you were still in high school. Otherwise, they're also really great areas to have experiential learning while you are with us at CSU. Whether you take a field trip there or have a summer internship.

But overall, they just really helped the community of Colorado and furthering agriculture throughout the state of Colorado, not just with what happens in Larimer County.

We also have a 91% post graduation placement rate, which is really impressive. That number is usually for the for the whole University, more around 80% somewhere around there it changes year to year.

But we're really proud of that. And that means that our students are either going on in continuing their education in the Masters or PhD program, or they are there.

Or they have a job directly after graduation within six months. So we have an 11 to one student to faculty ratio, so I said that we have a little bit more of a tight knit community within this college, and that's part of the reason why the university's student faculty ratio is a little bit higher. So we do have a little bit more interaction that way.

We have about 62% Colorado residents, with the rest being from either out of state or international, so we do have a good mix of our Colorado students and our out of state students.

We also focus on hands-on experiential learning, so I'll go over, go over that a little bit more in detail in the different departments, but it is something that we really focus on here in the College of Egg.

And one of my favorite numbers to talk about is scholarships. So in the 2017, 2018 school year, which is one of the last awarding years that I have numbers for, we awarded 445 scholarships that total in over $1,000,000 to our students. That's more money than some of the larger colleges at CSU have to give out. So when you're looking at and breaking down those numbers, that's about a third of our students, who is each of those scholarships? Went to someone individually that would be about 1/3 of our students receiving scholarships directly from the college, which is.

Awesome, so if you are already admitted in looking at that, you can definitely ask some questions if you have any about filling out scholarship applications within the University. Once you've already been admitted.

Will jump right into our different Department overview. So first we have animal Sciences in this Department. We have two different majors, animal science equine science. They focus on hands-on classes from the very beginning. So in your intro classes, you're going to get hands-on experience in labs with either livestock or horses, which is awesome. They also require an internship, so you will have some help finding replacements for that. We have an awesome career counselor, Sam Holzhauser, who really helped.

Find those internships and then she also helps you find jobs after you graduate as well. But with the internship she has a lot of connections already. It can help make those connections with and for you.

We also have quite a few undergraduate research opportunities. Not in not only in the Department of Animal Sciences but throughout the college, but it is something that is recommended within the College of Animal Sciences. So just look into those opportunities and find something that you're passionate about. We are currently one research institution as a whole as a University, so that means that we really focus on top tier research and we also involve undergraduate research in that as well.

With this specific Department, we have over 20 clubs, teams and organizations that are connected to the Department. Like I was saying, whether that's a judging team or someone who represents the Department or.

Animal showing that kind of thing. Those things happen through this Department.

Some potential careers you could go into with animal science, equine or livestock operations, equine therapy, genetics research. Working for Breed Association, working for feeding and processing corporations working in dairy systems. Just because we're in Colorado doesn't mean that we don't also interact with the dairy industry, so we do actually have a doctor of veterinary medicine on staff who focused on very systems in her graduate studies. We also have opportunities.

Or are you all to work in a veterinary clinic in food safety and quality control and in the industry in general? Some of our areas where we have opportunities for interacting with some hands-on experiential learning would be out at our deck, which is our research farm that is North of campus that I mentioned is that Research Center that is located within Fort Collins and so up there you're able to interact with livestock, whether that's cattle or that is sheep, or that is.

Depending on the year and what they have up there, you're given those hands.

The opportunities to interact with animals that way and then out at our equine center, which is directly West of campus. We do have horses there. You do not need to own a horse. You do not need to breed a horse in or board a horse in Fort Collins to be apart of that, that major and so you can interact with with those animals out at those centers during your classes.

And if you're interested in the animal Sciences and equine Sciences, the classes can be interchanged so you do have a set list of classes that you have to complete, But then some of your opportunities for electives. You could you know if you're an animal science student, you can take some equine science classes and vice versa.

Moving right along in the soil and crop Sciences so we just have the one major in here with quite a few miners and some concentrations as well. And with this what you're really looking at is you are looking at soil health and crop health, so there are a few different ways to get involved in that as well. With there's a student run sustainable farm as well as the soil judging team. Through this Department, one of the concentrations I like to point out is applied information technology.

So this is really popular within agriculture right now. So if you're looking at things like self driving tractors or automated sensing, so you're able to, you know, tell the rainfall that's happened in a in a field remotely from your smartphone. Those kind of things are all happening in this Department, and there are some really cool innovations that are happening with this research that's going on in this Department, so they're really focused on sustainability.

And conservation, as well as better, better adapting to what's going on in the world today.

You can go into careers in industry, government, entrepreneurship, academia, being a crop consultant, all sorts of different opportunities coming from this Department as well.

Moving right along to horticulture and landscape architecture, we have three different majors over here, environmental horticulture, horticulture, and landscape architecture with a few different minors and some concentrations, you can see listed on this slide as well.

In this Department really focuses on enhancing the community and well being of people. So what we're looking at with experiential learning over here is that we have quite a few different spaces where students engaged landscape architecture looks a little bit different than horticulture and environmental horticulture, as they have their own spaces for using a drafting desk in collaborating on different projects. We do have a landscape architect student on the call, so if you do have questions, put him into the chat for him.

But we do so so landscape architecture has a has a has that experiential learning space for themselves, and then we have some green houses as well as a horticulture center which is directly off campus for our students to engage in experiential, hands-on learning with one favorite things to mention with horticulture and food crops. I know that we have someone with food crops concentration on here is if you've ever had Pablo Green chili or maybe.

Hatch green chili from New Mexico. Um well, the public Chili's weren't really developed as well as they have been or as well as they are now. A little while ago and so part of one of our research centers down in the Arkansas Valley actually was working on different pepper variety development and breed development for those food crops. And so a researcher might. Bartolo is actually the one who finally developed the Pueblo, Chile and was able to grow it consistently an in the right.

In the right environment, and so he is the reason why we have some public Chili's and are able to make public Chile. Which, if you're not from this part of the United States, meeting the West and you haven't had green Chile, highly recommend getting a burrito smothered with it as soon as you're out here. OK, so that's my food tip for this one, but with that food crops in that the food systems you know that's the impact that CSU in these research centers. And and this research has on the state is we are.

Helping these different areas of agriculture throughout Colorado. Another example is the palisade Peaches. If you're from Colorado, you know what I'm talking about. If you're not once you're here in August when they have Palisade Peach stands all over the all over the city, you have to try them. But this year there is a snap freeze and a lot of the palisade Peach is didn't make it and didn't weren't fully grown, and so a lot of the research that's happening out at the Research Center that deals with Peach is is how do we prepare them to survive a snap Frost.

Or how do we prepare them to survive a late snow or early snow? So it's really interesting stuff going on at those research centers and really applicable to our everyday lives as consumers.

Um, one other thing I'd like to mention with that as well as one of the capstones for horticulture students is growing lettuce that's them served in our dining centers here at CSU. So what better way to give back to the community then be learning about hydroponics and aquaculture while feeding our students? So if you're ever on campus and you're able to see the little signs that say that lettuce or greens were grown on campus, they were usually grown by senior students in our horticulture program, which is super awesome.

Some potential careers from this Department. Looking at professional sports turf management, which is pretty niche but also fruit and vegetable production. Breed development like I was talking about with Mike Bartolo and those public Chili's looking at education or landscape design.

Next, we'll take a look at the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics with majors in agricultural, business, environmental and natural resource, economics and agricultural education. With minors in agricultural literacy, food industry management list goes on, as well as some concentrations within there as well. This Department really works to analyze different environmental and agricultural situations, make informed managerial decisions, teach communities, and bring about policies for change. So this is a really impactful Department. An other than AG Ed, which.

Uh, in agriculture education, you're learning different ways to engage either community or classrooms in learning about agriculture. So a lot of students who go through the Egg Ed program are looking to teach in high school classrooms. If any of y'all were involved in FFA or had agriculture classes at your high school, that's what a lot of our egghead students are preparing to do so. Experiential learning is pretty clear for what they do, but then you're looking at egg business and environmental natural resource economics.

How do those really play in? Well, they're using real world datasets in having real world. An analysis of those data sets, so from different companies around Fort Collins and Colorado in the world. So they're looking at real world situations and analyzing those and learning what people did in those situations, or what people are currently doing in those situations to compare what their decisions were. So some really cool experiential learning, even though it might not be as physical as.

Working with cows or horses or growing lettuce for campus or learning are doing like a student teaching semester. It's still pretty real and pretty cool. What they're doing as well.

With minors in this as well, we do have some awesome opportunities. Egg business. If you're looking at owning your own practice or owning your own greenhouse, that sort of thing. That might be a great minor for you to be able to understand a little bit more of the the back end of those kind of businesses as well as egg literacy. If you just want to know how to communicate agriculture to people in everyday setting, whether that's people in your community or your peers, that's a great minor as well. I know a lot of students who add that on just because it's really awesome to know how to talk about agriculture.

And in all the different settings that were put into.

With this you can go into careers in education, business and marketing, community development economics. Looking at analyst jobs, that kind of thing. And I also put in a plug here that a lot of students who I have worked with have also started here if they're interested in going into agricultural law or patent law. So if that's something that you're interested in, this might be a good jumping off point for you all.

Last but certainly not least, we have agricultural biology. In here we have one major of agricultural biology with two different minors in entomology and plant health. But what this focuses on as a whole is insects, plant pathogens and weeds. So pretty much anything that inhibits plant growth, and it looks at all of those different systems and how they work. This is one of two programs like it in the country, so if these things are sparking your interest, I would highly recommend looking into this.

Because it prepares you pretty uniquely for some specifically federal jobs with the US government that not a lot of undergraduate students will be prepared fully to enter. So this is a really great opportunity for you all if this. If you like bugs, weeds an and plant pathogens. So if that's something you like half on to this program, but we also have a 4 + 1 program, which means that in five years you'd be able to get 2 degrees. Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science.

Impact management, so if that's something that you're interested in, feel free to talk to admissions counselor or once you're at CSU, talk to your academic advisor about the potential for that.

Um with this as well. One of the fun facts about this Department is that it's the home of CSU's first ever student club, so this year, if you don't know the history we used to be an agricultural and mechanical school, which means that our college and maybe the College of Engineering. I would argue that mechanical's a little bit different than engineering, but either way, we're the oldest college at CSU. And so of course, that comes with having one of the oldest student clubs. And so this student club when it was founded.

Not quite in 1870, but a little bit after it's been continuously running ever since then, which is pretty cool. So we have a pretty unique and old collection from the Entomology Club. Also the home of the Bug Zoo, which has a lot of educational outreach with students in our area.

We are so looking at this potential careers. You could go into research integrated pest management via crop consultant, look at Extension services working for them. So like the extension centers that I mentioned all over the state of Colorado, as well as a lot of the West you could work at a zoo or garden's personnel. You could work for an agrochemical company. You can work in seed and plant production. You could work in environmental and agricultural patent law, or you could work as a plant physiologist. So there's lots of options.

I know there was a lot of information covering all five of those departments in just about 20 minutes, but I hope it gave you some ideas for some questions for our students as well as gave you a better idea of what you're looking at here at CSU, I'll pull up this last slide slide really quickly. As you can see I do have a cell phone number as well as an email that are really easily accessible, so feel free to call or text that cell phone number as well as email me.

And I just got one question, so look at that. We quickly let's see.

Awesome, so we have a question about housing applications and is there a recommended dorm for animal science majors?

So there's there's not really one recommended residence Hall for our agricultural Sciences student. We do have an agricultural science learning community, which is located in Braden Hall, and that can be part of the application as well. If Olivia would be interested in that. But you can definitely send me an email if you want a little bit more information about that learning community, since I know you have to leave and I can definitely email you the presentation as well. Thanks for asking.

Awesome, so if you have my email on my cell phone I will invite our wonderful ambassadors to go ahead an broadcast their video and we'll get to know them a little bit and y'all can ask some questions.

Hello Joe.

Hi can you hear me alright?

And Britney hello.

Hello.

And Jonathan Wu around here, great so will go down that line. So Joe, Brittany, and Jonathan would you mind introducing yourselves? Tell us a little bit about your major. What you do here at CSU tell us about you.

Yeah so hi everybody and welcome my name is Joe. I use she her hers pronouns and I'm originally from Seattle, WA, so if any of you are coming to Colorado from out of State, I love to talk about that experience. Here at CSU, I'm in my second year and I am double majoring in agricultural education with a concentration in teacher development, an equine science, and I have a minor in chemistry. If you have any questions about what a major versus minor versus a concentration, again, I know that those could be confusing and we went through a lot of those really fast during the presentation.

So I would love to chat with you through that here in the college. I of course, a nagging bassador in the capacity. I'm here today. I'm also a peer mentor, which is a new program that we just started with him really excited about and I am a competitive member on the animal welfare judging team.

There we go, can hear me perfect. My name is Brittany Fetzer. I am a senior in animal science. I am a nagging bassador and I'm the master president for this year and it's one of my major roles am in the College of AG as well as I am an intern for the Beef Quality Assurance program for Colorado. I've been involved with the sorority on campus for for agricultural students for girls. Before I had to drop that.

This matter, unfortunately, but it's a great opportunity. You should definitely ask you about that if you want anymore information on that. I included livestock Association and Farm Bureau. It's really nice to go into different colleges in.

And different departments in the College in general for different clubs and organizations that you want to be in. I'm from the northeast corner of Colorado, so mall is always going to be a Colorado native. I think. I don't think I'm going to leave. I love it here, and this is a great opportunity to get to kind of talk to us. Pick our brains about things that we tend to forget to say really quickly here at the beginning, because it's always trying to run through lots of information for you guys through the presentation and through just meeting us. So don't hesitate to ask questions.

Alright hey y'all can you hear me?

Awesome so hey all my name is Jonathan Cable I use he him pronouns in I am a third year here at CSU studying landscape architecture with a minor in construction management and so during my time at CSU definitely have gotten involved in a variety of things ranging from key communities. My first year I was also part of an egg Ed. Programs currently serves as the vice President of Internal Equipment for Ambassadors and I also serve as a presidential ambassador for the 2020-2021.

A school year and so yeah, definitely encourage you all to get involved in whatever capacity that your passion about, or even you know if something that you don't think you would be interested in, but your account that sounds interesting. Pursue that because you know I've definitely found a lot of great friendships and a lot of great community by just exploring all of them. Many options that are here at CSU.

Awesome, thanks all for introducing yourselves. If you're on the web and R and you want to ask them any specific questions about their experiences or if you have a general question that you want all three of them to answer, feel free to put that into the chat. We do have one question and it looks like it's mostly for. Jonathan Mira asked how often are classes in the field for the landscaping made.

That's a great question, um so.

I guess it's kind of two parts, so it's like in the field versus hands on, 'cause I would say in the field we have a lot of that, especially if you're in the food crops or interest in like the controlled environmental horticulture. So we do a lot of stuff in green houses if you're just in horticulture. If you're in the landscape architecture and landscape design contract ING, you're in the studio a lot, and thankfully we've really prioritized that even this year during covid times and being in the studio in really communicating with each other and having our own studio spaces that are safe.

And just kind of belong to us as students, so we can kind of explore, you know, all of the ideas that we have and we have our own workstations, so we're very hands on in general for the college, but also for horticultural in architecture. Yesterday I was on a plant walking snow, looking at different trees and so you know we are definitely out there in all types of conditions. And so yeah, I definitely definitely encourage you to look into some.

I guess deeper things you know. We have so many concentrations in the horticulture program and so I try to find like that one that you're really interested in and pursue that.

Thank you Jonathan. Awesome so we have another question from Jocelyn. Is there a bus system to off campus, green houses ETC. For those who do not have vehicles and I'll give a short answer, which is yes if you are required to be somewhere that is off campus. There are transportation options, but I'd like to kind of open this up to the three of you to give a little bit of perspective on transportation in Fort Collins. Whether or not you think having a car is useful or necessary and all of those different.

Questions that come with transportation.

Um, I guess from an animal science standpoint, for those of you wanting to go into that Department, if you have a campus class, I think you're going to be fine without a car, especially if you're going on campus. If you live a little farther away from campus. If you're a transfer student, you can live off campus in the apartments. I would suggest paying on how far you are and how close the bus system is to have a car just because it is a little bit of a walk or a little bit of a job too, depending on from where the different departments.

Are in coordination to campus. The bus is some super super nice. You pay for it no matter what. If you use it or not, so might as well use it for those classes that you have at our deck. For animal science students or to the.

Center the equine center just West of campus. I would recommend to have your own car for those.

Because they don't offer buses that go out all the way out to our tech for sure, and there's some that get close to the equine center, but not all the way there. And they only run for a certain period of time. So if you need to be out at those places later than the bus system runs, I definitely suggest having your own car.

Yeah, I think jumping off of that, um.

First year all first year students are required to live on campus, but housing is guaranteed. So with the way that CSU is kind of set up, parking can be really, really limited. So if you were living on campus as well as going to class on campus, you never really leaving, it's going to be really difficult to find a parking spot to begin with. And then your car is going to sit for awhile because you're never going to leave campus. And then if you do leave campus to go to the grocery store or go out or do something when you come back, it's very unlikely.

Find a parking spot close to your residence Hall. So for freshman, I would definitely say it's really not necessary. The bus out to the equine center doesn't run 24/7. It stops in the mid evening. I'm probably closer to six or seven, but there are two stops that are about a block from the equine center, so it's not that far. If you do take the bus. Just to reiterate what Brittany said, we have a transportation fee as part of our tuition so you don't have to pay an additional fee for any of our typical.

Transit routes around Fort Collins, which is really nice and most of the major apartment complexes have a bus stop like either right outside or within like a two to three minute walk. I'm not even in an apartment complex in my nearest bus stop is like 3 minutes from where I live off campus so.

For the majority of students who live pretty close to campus, a car really isn't that necessary. I would say if you're planning on having internships or a job somewhere like veterinary clinic, you might need one, because if you're living off campus, you have to take the bus to campus and then probably get on another bus to get to work or your internship and that can be very time consuming. So maybe as a second year living off campus, consider bringing a car. But my recommendation, especially for first years because of the limiting.

Limited parking options. I would recommend leaving your car at home for that first year.

Can we encourage you to make friends with people who do have cars?

Yes, awesome, great input, thanks y'all.

And completely agree as as a first year student myself, that was a great way to make friends if you needed to make a target run, see who on your Hall had a car and go all together or ride the bus.

Is probably I came from a small town Wisconsin. So being at CSU is the first time I rode a public bus. Informal transportation is pretty awesome, so.

Awesome, we have a question from Olivia's mom. I believe it does. The equine center offer student jobs like cleaning stalls, feeding horses etc or I'm going to expand that to what other employment opportunities have y'all taken advantage of on campus or at one of our agricultural experiential learning areas?

I can really equine and specifically we do have student positions that open basically every semester at the beginning too. You know, feed clean stalls all of the fun. Now the fun stuff.

And as you gain more experience at CSU, we have additional jobs like working at front desks at office is working at our equine reproduction lab, one of our fellow ambassadors works at the Equine Orthopedic Center at the Vet Teaching Hospital, so there are definitely student employment opportunities to be around horses and whether it's a cleaning and feeding capacity, or you're actually like doing some technical work with them, but I would also say that there are.

Many opportunities to volunteer and do unpaid work. If you're willing to work with horses. Personally, I volunteer with the therapeutic riding center here on campus and in a few short weeks, we're opening an entirely new Temple Grandin Equine Center for therapeutic riding. Some kind of excited about it, personally, so that's going to be something really neat for a sequence science students to get involved in, so there's definitely opportunities outside of classes to get involved with horses. Paid an unpaid in terms of student employment outside of.

Equine, I currently serve as an admissions ambassador in the Office of Admissions, doing lots of stuff like this, giving tours, which is really cool 'cause I love getting to interact with people and talk about how much I love CSU. As you can tell, I'm kind of excited about it, and so that's been a really fun opportunity for me, but I'll pass it off to the other ambassadors and they can discuss some other on campus student employee opportunities.

In your head, Bernie.

OK um.

So I was a transfer student, so I took a lot of time into the internship opportunity, especially over the summer. And that's really cool. Unique opportunity that the College of AG offers is some really great career fairs to get involved with those types of things, as well as being able to make sure that those opportunities that you're involved with in class those some can very well lead to jobs and internships down the way. I had an internship at Five Rivers.

One summer and then I also have an internship right now an in the college bag. Actually for the QA internship which I work with a professor of beef quality assurance, animal welfare. So that's really unique opportunity. I haven't had any like regular, I guess persay on campus jobs. Just 'cause I've had other on off campus jobs. Whether it's like I sell bridal dresses right now so those types of things will pop up and those things workout really well too and that's the whole point of college is just to boost your resume with different things that.

Thank you well rounded applicant for jobs and careers in the future.

Yes, I definitely would agree with Brittany and with Joe. I think the biggest thing is just, you know, looking for those experiences that you want to add to your resume is really important, so it might not be a paid position or it might not be that exact position. You know that you're looking for, but as long as you're getting experiences and showing others that you can really work hard, I think that's really important.

For myself, I actually haven't pursued any employment opportunities within the College of Agricultural itself, but I have been employed in.

Catering services with the student center here on campus. Also, I have had several internship opportunities and I currently work actually with C Denver which is kind of ironic 'cause they're kind of arrival, but I actually have a really great opportunity to work with them in representing CSU in the college bag as a research assistant in their College of Architecture and Planning. So I'd say, yeah, just be open minded for what type of experiences you want to gain during your time at CSU.

Especially being a student, but are really open to bring you into their office or into their workplace and just saying like hey, I realize that you're a student you don't have. You don't have all these career aspirations worked out yet, but let me show you some things that you can do. So as we were really great opportunity.

Thank you all for sharing and kind of connecting what Jonathan said back to what I said earlier with undergraduate research. If you're listening to a professor or instructor, speak about their research and it's really resonating with you and you're like I want to work in that lab, feel free to go and talk to them after class. There could be some opportunities. Maybe it's just washing Petri dishes, but you know that's not a bad place to start. I had a friend who started in the lab in our natural college natural Sciences her freshman year walk, literally washing Petri dishes an by her junior year. So three years in.

You have a published research paper with a project that she had headed up, so there are opportunities that if you go and you do 80% of that that first contact the professor or instructor will probably help you out. So don't be afraid and seize those opportunities for sure.

Um, for Olivia's mom's question. Yes, I'll connect with you through email and then Meera asks how many people, on average are in Gen Ed courses. I'll give just a general quick answer that our our classrooms are typically around 150 to 200 seats and never more than that. So that is how those are arranged. But there are some online exceptions to that and I'll let our investors kind of share some of their experience and that.

Yeah, so in general here at CSU the average number of people in a lower division so that your freshman sophomore classes is 56 people and your average for upper division is 39, give or take. So if you're in a class like biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, some of these classes that a ton of majors are requiring like engineering biology, chemistry majors, biomedical Sciences, you'll be in classes with closer to 200 people.

But the thing that we have that we have done to support you in classes like that, basically every class on campus has ATA or teaching assistant and there like an extension of the professor that you can go to. That is oftentimes a little bit easier to reach to ask questions. Maybe there's a concept that really isn't clicking for you or you have an upcoming exam and there's this one thing that wow, I have no idea what the professor is talking about when we're going over this. Can you please explain it in different terms so those are really great people to go to and I don't just say that because I've been a TA.

It's not just bias, there really helpful, I promise, and then the professors as well. You can always go to them. Susan mentioned going them to ask about research, but you could also ask them about what's going on in class. Their job is to teach every single student and not all of us understand things. If they explain it one way, and so having someone maybe explain it a second way can be really beneficial.

Yeah I guess to add on to that.

Yeah, in the in those Gen Ed courses where you have.

I'll ton of different majors coming into that same room.

And feel like you like I don't know how to connect with all these people and so for me that's why I love the College of AG because we do have smaller classroom sizes. So especially for me in landscape architecture I think I started out with a class an entire class of landscape architecture for my year with 30 students. And now we're done well. And so with that we know everybody's name and you know, everybody's face and the teachers know us really well as well, and even just walking across the quad on campus, the quad is.

Kind of a large grassy area between all the College of AG buildings and you know you time and time again I run into people that aren't professors in landscape architecture. There just professors. You know, maybe in animal Sciences or in Department of Aging resource economics, but we can still talk to each other and we still get to know you know what's going on in class was going on in the college even know what's going on with their life. You know, become really good friends. So while the Gen Ed courses aren't the greatest place to stay, I think the mindset really is like.

You know, once you get into those specialized courses, even in your first year in the College of AG, those are some really great places to start forming. Some of those relationships.

Basically did it did Oh well, they said because I didn't start out taking ahold of tenants 'cause I took them at my previous Community College. But I definitely think those upper level division classes just look forward to getting to them. Because if you push through the 1st two semesters it or the 1st two years, it seems like a breeze once you get to those.

Upper level classes. You really get that interaction with students, other faculty that you get to be involved with an you really get that one on one experience that you want out of the college Dragon. That's what we can give you here, which is really great compared to some of the other colleges in the University because they are so big and have so many students in them that you don't get that nearly one on one interaction which we can give you here in the college bag.

Definitely, and something else. I'll plug for Gen Eds too. Is maybe you'll find another cool interest so my internal biology class is how I found wildlife biology. I didn't know that was a major at CSU, but I talked to one of my classmates about it and that's how I found it. So don't be afraid in those Gen Ed classes to branch out and find other passions. Whether it's you know another major, another minor, whatever that looks like, you're surrounded by people who have similar interests, but if manifested, those in different ways through their choices so.

Could be really interesting, um, awesome. We just have a few minutes left and I don't see any other questions coming in. So I just want to give Joanne Brittany and Jonathan a little bit of time to explain why they choose to use you and then why they chose to stay at CSU.

Yeah, so my why I chose CSU story isn't all that exciting. I chose CSU because of the equine science major when I was looking at colleges. I was thinking I wanted to go to vet school and work in large animal veterinary medicine, an equine body work and CSU is one of two land grant institutions in the country that has a four year equine science program. And so I was like, OK, cool check, let's do that.

So my choosing CSU story, like I said, isn't all that exciting, but the reason why I stay at CSU and the reason why if I woke up tomorrow morning and I had to choose a college all over again and would choose CSU in a heartbeat is because of the opportunities that I have gotten here at Colorado State and in the College of Act. Specifically, like I mentioned when I came here, I was Super gung ho. To go to that school and go in the livestock medicine. But I got involved in a couple of different things and discovered my true passion in life, which is.

Agricultural education and bringing that to students in urban areas like the one that I grew up in, I didn't have agricultural education. I didn't have FFA. I didn't know what that was until I got here. It's kind of embarrassing, but that's the truth of the matter. But I got here. I figured it out and I figured out that I loved it and that wouldn't have been possible if I'd probably got anywhere else, because nowhere can compare to the opportunities that you have here at CSU. But here in our college specifically.

Because we are such a diverse college touching on so many different agricultural topics. So yes, in short the opportunities that you have here at CSU, you can't compare their fantastic.

Um, I chose the issue. I've always blood green goals when I tell people because my parents were alumni and they might hear it see issue. So it's kind of been part of my childhood and into my adult life. But it was never pressure for me to attend the issue. But my first step onto campus as a transfer student to officially sign up for classes and register was just a truly motivational experience for me. Coming from Community College that I was so focused on my sports scholarship and just trying to graduate with my.

Associates that here I fell in love with the community and the feeling of being at home. Honestly, I the first semester here at the issue I forgot to go home. My parents kept asking me what are you going to come home like? Yeah not for a couple more weeks. I've got stuff to do and I even told him at one point I didn't want to go to Hawaii 'cause I wanted to go to a Farm Bureau conference. That's how crazy I loved it and it's just kind of kept that love continuing on even after taking a year off to serve as a state FFA officer for Colorado. I was super excited to come back and I was.

Literally the day I got to re register for classes for this last fall I was sitting there like the whole entire day just waiting for my time slot to open to register. So I feel like you're gonna always feel like at home. Whether you're not sure of your classes, there's always something you can reach out to and just be like, hey like I don't really know what's going on, but help me out and you can find a lifelong friendships through that. I met my best friend here at CSU and I could really meet amazing people that have changed my life for the better and I think that's about the issue is all about is finding those people that you are always gonna be in your life but also finding a career in the path that you enjoy. Whether it's through opportunity.

I'd like to say that you're here, or whether it's through the opportunity to have scholarships like I see that there's a question about that scholarships that changed my.

Time here at CSU to where I don't have to always have a job, and because the scholarships here in the College of AG are so amazing, I have not had to pay out of pocket or have a student loan to pay for college, which has alleviated some of the pressures. So I can take on internships and organizations and be able to do these things that I have at CSU.

Can you hear me now?

True, yeah, like what Brittany said. CSU is like home for me.

The end.

I grew up. My dad is a CSU alum and he was in the Department of Resource Economics and you know, kind of like what Bernie said it like. I always knew that I probably wanted to CSU. I wasn't pressured into it in any way and actually CSU was the 2nd place that I applied. I applied to see Denver 1st and then when it came to the decision of you know what community do I want to really thrive in. And you know where? Where do I want to wake up every morning?

To wake up in downtown Denver or in beautiful Fort Collins, where we have such diapers in awesome community.

And so that was that's a big factor in just the choice of community and location. But then also the opportunity for myself coming from a rural area where I was interested in AG, I didn't have a traditional act background, but wanting to come into the College of Agricultural Sciences to still pursue my passion for agriculture. But then also person my passion for landscape architecture and for design and construction management. So that was just a whole blend of correct factors for me. An you know why I stay at CSU?

It is just the outstanding support that I've received here serving as a presidential ambassador, I get reminded almost every day just how outstanding that community is here. I see, you know how supportive we are as a RAM family. I get to talk with alumni and donors who desired to give back to the CSU community because they've graduated. They've gone from CSU, but then they realize, like there's no other community like CSU, and so that's why they give back. And that's allowed me to fuel.

You know my passion to give back and like Joe said, there's so many opportunities to pursue your interests. I mean, if you have an interest or hobby, there's most likely a student organization for that at CSU.

And also just the Accessibility that there is for leadership opportunities. You know, after my first semester at CSU people were saying Jonathan you should join ambassadors and look into all these other organizations that I think would thrive in an, you know, just having people that you believe in you and that support you just really outstanding.

Thank you all so much for sharing. I feel so lucky to work with all of you and to have you all share your stories and your experiences with our wonderful perspective students. And for all of you on the call, if you do have any other questions that come up after we sign off today, feel free to send me a text or an email or give me a call. I'm always here for you if you want to connect with a student one on one or you have questions that you'd like answered by someone in a certain Department.

I can make that happen too, so be in touch. We're really excited for y'all, and I really believe that there's a place for everyone at CSU. And as you can tell, there are many different spaces that our students have found and enjoyed. So I truly think that's the case. But I also want you to feel as at home as our ambassadors and myself feel at CSU. So if you're finding another another place that makes your heart as happy as.

CSU makes us. I would be so excited for you so no matter what your college journey looks like, keep in touch with me. Let me know what I can help with an we're just really excited for you. And if you come and join the Ram family, we can't wait to meet you in person. But with that I'll sign off so have a great rest of your day and go Rams.