Public Leadership Practicum
Embedded Files
For my practicum for Public Leadership Scholars, I enrolled in ANSC399, an internship class for Animal Science majors. In this class, I paired with faculty member Dr. Shawna Weimer, where we collaborated on a fact sheet on animal welfare in the poultry industry. The purpose of this fact sheet was a comparison of the poultry welfare standards within the United States with standards seen in the European Union. This fact sheet will be released by UMD extension.
What Did I Learn and How Can I Apply This Knowledge?
This internship experience taught me much about the animal welfare standards of poultry, and how differences can be seen based on what region one is from. I also learned more about scientific writing, and how to remove bias. This experience helped me learn more about this industry overall, and how certain issues such as male chick culling at hatcheries, slaughter methods, and housing types are difficult to solve overnight. I feel with this newfound knowledge, I am more prepared in entering the animal science field, and narrowing where I see myself after I graduate. This internship also helped me form a stronger connection with my mentor who has connections in the poultry industry. With these connections, I have a greater ability to obtain further internships and experience.
What Are My Future Plans?
In the future, I intend to gain further scientific writing experience in the field of Animal Science. To obtain this experience, I will pursue internships surrounding areas of concern in animal science through internships and faculty labs. With this experience, I will search for a career in government organizations (USDA, FDA) or animal science/welfare lobbying groups.
What Has Public Leadership Scholars Taught Me?
Through Public Leadership Scholars, I have gained knowledge of leadership, and close friends. PL has helped me become more comfortable with reaching out to others to gain experience and enabled me to perform well in my previous internship. Specifically, PL helped me become more driven to produce my best work in my internship, and ask for advice when I needed it. I feel with these experiences, I am one step closer to where I want to be after I graduate.
Artifact
The artifact I chose for my internship experience is the fact sheet I worked on throughout the semester. Writing this fact sheet taught me more about myself, and about the path, I should take from here on out. During the writing process, I never felt as though I was completing a pointless assignment. I felt rewarded after finishing a section of my sheet and receiving feedback from my professor. This fact sheet also embodies my growth as a scientific writer from freshmen to sophomore year. Being able to pull information from different classes, as well as research articles helped me not only in writing my fact sheet but also in retaining knowledge previously learned. Not only this, but it expanded upon previous concepts that were not analyzed deeply in the early animal science class I had taken. Without this experience, I would remain uncertain about my major, and where it can be applied. Going into college, I felt I was at a severe disadvantage with a lack of large animal handling experience. However, this experience taught me that although I may not possess as much handling experience as I would like, I excel in other areas such as writing about animal issues. These skills open doors to other occupations in the animal science field.
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