Preparing Today's Students for Tomorrow's Opportunities

Our students of today have tremendous opportunities to become tomorrow's leaders in research, education, extension, agribusiness, government and other areas.Our product—the student—is our number one responsibility.Our objective must be to provide appropriate and changing education and training for this leadership of the future.In business, as in other areas of employment, personality traits such as honesty, determination and loyalty receive as much or more consideration as know-how! Maturity, judgment, initiative, enthusiasm and ability to work and get along with other people are qualities sought by employers. These traits are not held exclusively by animal science or agriculture graduates, but are found in graduates from other areas. Our graduates having these sought characteristics will receive starting salaries comparable to most others.We need to help students attain breadth in their programs as well as depth in specialized areas. We must reduce our “busy work”—how to do it—in curricula and provide elective hours (preferably one-fourth to one-third of the total for graduation) for courses in communications, economics, chemistry, business, humanities, social sciences and areas of specialization. Such changes do and will require more emphasis on excellent teaching and strong dedicated counseling.If we aggressively pursue our convictions along the lines discussed, we should be able to look back proudly to the results derived from preparing our students for tomorrow's opportunities as leaders in agribusiness, as top-notch farm business operators, as careful researchers with originality, as inspiring teachers and counselors, as extension leaders who will emphasize more of the “why” rather than the “how” to do it, and as leaders in the private enterprise society in their communities, states, the nation and the world!